
Class ^l' 2.^ 5' S 
Book _ .Zui^ 



npo 



4 



SKETCHES 



OF 



PEOMITnTENT 



LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS 



BY / 



RALEIGH, N. C: 
Edwards & Broughton, Printers and Binders. 

1888. 






30451 










PREFACE. 



The author has sought to produce a book of sketches 
of prominent living North Carolinians. He has endeav- 
ored to set forth the principal features of their lives, plainly, 
simply and truthfully. Having pardonable pride in all 
that pertains to the honor and glory of the State, his hope 
is that his work may be a source of instruction and pleas- 
ure to those who read it, and be of service to other genera- 
tions in giving them a faithful picture of many of the 
great and good men of our day. The author regrets that, 
through his inability to procure necessary data from a 
number of prominent men, no sketches of their lives 
appear in the book. And it is proper that the author 
should say that all the sketches are not his own work, 
but that those of Hons. E. G. Reade, A. B. Andrews, 
A. M. Waddell, B. S. Gaither, A. S. Merrimon and T. J. 
Jarvis, were written by prominent men, whose ability 
demands, but whose modesty forbids, the disclosure of 
their names. 



SKETCHES 



OP 



Prominent Livincr North Carolinians, 



POLITICAL. 



Ho^. MATT. W. RANSOM. 

The senior Senator from the State of North Carolina 
to the Congress of the United States, at Washington, is 
the honorable gentleman whose name prefigures this 
sketch. He was born in Warren county, this State, in 
1826, and is now, therefore, sixty-two years of age. For 
more than half a life-time he has been a conspicuous 
personage, and a man of recognized ability and pro- 
nounced influence in North Carolina. Shortly after his 
graduation from the University, at Chapel Hill, in 1847, 
he was admitted to the bar, and five years later he was 
elected Attorney General of the State. Few men have 
merited or won such success so earl}^ in life, and fewer 
have followed it with so continuous a public service. In 
1855 he resigned the Attorney Generalship, and was not 
again in office until the year 1858, when he was a repre- 
sentative in the State Legislature. And again, in 1859 
and 1860, he filled that position. He was sent as a Peace 
Commissioner from the State of North Carolina to the 
Congress of Southern States at Montgomery, Alabama, 
in 186L On the breaking out of the civil war he entered 
the Confederate army, and rose successively through the 



6 SKETCHES OF 

positions of Lieutenant Colonel, Colonel and Brigadier 
General to that of Major General. In the last named 
rank he served until the close of the war, and surrendered 
with General Lee's army at Appomattox. As a soldier 
General Ransom showed himself to be a courageous man 
and a brave and skillful oflBcer, and he endeared himself 
greatly, by his humane management and courteous bear- 
ing, to the men of his command. Returning to his native 
State at the close of the war. General Ransom resumed 
the practice of the law, at the same time being engaged 
extensively as a planter, and it was not until the year 
1872 that he again entered public life. Then, for the 
first time, he was elected to the Senate of the United 
States, a position he has occupied continuously until the 
present time, having been re-elected in 1876 and in 1883. 
At the expiration of his present term, in March, 1889, he 
will have been eighteen years in the highest office within 
the gift of the people of his own State, an honor of which 
he and the State may be proud. Senator Ransom is a 
man of marked ability and of broad culture. Though 
he has seldom made set speeches in the Senate, yet his 
efforts have been characterized by those qualities of con- 
servative good sense, elegance of expression and grace of 
delivery that are peculiarly his own. *' Speech is silvern, 
but silence is golden." Perhaps it is owing to a wise 
observance of this truth that Senator Ransom has wielded 
more than an ordinary influence in the Senate and has 
accomplished so much for his State; and the frequent 
and liberal appropriations he has been instrumental in 
procuring for river and harbor improvements on our 
Eastern coast, bear testimony to his success in this regard. 
However reticent Senator Ransom may have been in 
Washington, he has made many speeches in North Car- 
olina during his Senatorial career, and his speeches, 
wherever delivered, have been exceptionally able and 
elegantly finished. He has a clear, resonant, far-reaching 
voice, and his articulation is especially pleasing. His 
language is select and forcible; and these qualities, added 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 7 

to the charm of his serious and graceful manner, make 
him a most popular and persuasive orator. Always a 
Democrat in politics, since the organization of that party, 
he has rendered his party valuable service, as a speaker, 
in many campaigns. He is a striking man in appear- 
ance, being tall, erect, having a large, well-shaped head, 
somewhat bald on top but covered with grayish black 
hair on the sides and rear, and he wears a full, short 
iron-gray beard and mustache. His eyes are black, and 
piercing at times, though usually mild and sympathetic, 
retaining only the lustre of quick intelligence and genial 
good humor. Probably his person is as familiar to the 
people of the State as that of any other popular speaker. 
Senator Ransom has resided for a number of years in 
Northampton county, about eight miles from Weldon, 
Halifax county, his post-office. He is proprietor of a 
large and well-cultivated landed estate, and he passes his 
rest time there with his family. 

Willis B. Dowd. 



Senator Z. B. VANCE. 

The subject of this sketch is so well known that it 
would seem superfluous to attempt to tell the people of 
North Carolina anything of his history. His popularity 
extends among all classes of people; his picture adorns 
the houses of both the rich and the poor; his name is a 
household word, cherished by all. At fireside gatherings 
his deeds are often recalled and discussed with pride ; 
his anecdotes, his jokes and his sallies of wit are told 
and laughed at. It would be interesting to know how 
many dogs, horses and cats in the State have been named 
Zeb; how many articles of manufacture have been sold 
under that name; how many sons of North Carolina 
have been named for him. If Mr. Vance had as many 



8 SKETCHES OF 

children as there are Zebs in the State, his family would 
rival that of the old woman that lived in the shoe. His 
jokes and bits of wit are so many and so applicable to a 
variety of cases that they are in everybody's conversa- 
tion ; they have such a reputation for producing laughter 
and applause that when our politicians are telling jokes 
on the stump they have only to say that they are Vance's 
to insure laughter. 

What has caused this popularity and the admiration 
in which he is everywhere held ? It is due chiefly to 
his integrity, his sincerity and his conscientious dis- 
charge of his duties. He was born with strong mental 
powers and an imagination exceedingly fertile; when- 
ever he has an idea to convey, a thousand illustrations 
flock to its support. Forcible metaphors are ever ready 
for his use. His mind sees an idea in all its relations at 
once; he can turn it over quickly and at will call up a 
humorous, witty or serious illustration. To this happy 
faculty is his early success due. From the very start he 
has been a great power before a jury; older and more 
learned men often proved no match for him. He had 
the more subtle mind, he called on the more familiar 
objects to illustrate and enforce his points. His wit and 
humor he could deal out to the terror of the most learned 
opponent. A more ready wit or a more beaming humor 
than Vance's is seldom found in any one. Some men use 
their wit and humor to their own degradation. Wit 
excites disgust when employed entirely on frivolous sub- 
jects. But wit and humor, flowing in lofty channels, 
are evidences of the highest type of intellect. Sena- 
tor Vance's wit is seldom misapplied ; it is almost 
always used to promote some wholesome idea; with 
it he has dashed many errors in pieces; with it he 
has shamed the hypocrite; with it he has summoned a 
blush to the cheek of the demagogue, and it has driven 
back many a stray fellow to the party ranks. In domes- 
tic life there is nothing more charming. To the unfortu- 
nate it lends a moment of pleasure; to the afflicted it 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 9 

draws a smile of relief; the melancholy it cheers; the 
stubborn it makes to yield, and it causes anger to melt. 
While possessing abundantly these merits, he is no less 
at home in graver affairs. He has profound judgment 
and insight. To use a homely expression, his ge'lnus is 
like the elephant's trunk, which not only lifts the smallest 
particle, but also the most ponderous weight. His 
speeches on the tariff have been highly commended by 
the press of the whole country. His style is bold and 
vigorous. His thoughts are pregnant with originality. 
Few men can make such palpable displays of their ideas. 

The dominant trait in the character of Senator Vance 
is his sincerity, without which there can be no statesman- 
ship. Most politicians think of nothing but the shortest 
cuts to office; they dare not breathe an opinion which is 
not approved by the majority; they are ready to ride the 
absurdest plank if the majority will but uphold it. 
How few study the good of mankind, follow principles 
and not policies, and would "rather be right than 
President"! Insincere men may triumph for awhile, but 
they must finally sink into contempt. No life can be a 
success if it is not sincere. 

One of the most commendable and at the same time 
most able efforts of his life, was his lecture delivered 
before John A.Andrew Post, No. 15, G. A. R., in Boston, 
December, 1886. Though the lecture has been widely 
read it is incapable of being advertized too much: 

My presence here to-night, ladies and gentlemen, occasions 
me a degree of embarrassment. I was prominently involved in 
the a£Eairs about which I propose to speak, having taken an 
active part in both the military and civil transactions of my State 
during the period of war. On the one hand- 1 am under the 
duress of your hospitality, which tempts me to say the things 
which would prove most agreeable to you; on the other hand, I 
somewhat fear that, if I should be too plain-spoken, I might 
become liable to the charge of abusing the privileges of a guest. 
Should I fail in properly avoiding either extreme I beg you to 
give me credit for good intentions at least. I honestly desire to 
speak the simple truth as it appears to me. This I believe is 



10 SKETCHES OF 

what you wish to hear! [Cries, 'that's what we want.'] Necessa- 
rily my remarks will be discursive and with no pretension to the 
preciseness and continuity of narration which should characterize 
a historical essay. I shall endeavor to entertain you for a brief 
space with the ideas and observations of occurrences as they 
appeared to a Southern man concerning the great civil war. 

It is proper that you should hear the inscription read upon the 
other side of the shield. 

This generation is yet too near to the great struggle to deal 
with it in the true historic spirit. Yet it is well enough for you 
to remember that the South is quite as far removed from it as is 
the North ; and the North has industriously undertaken from 
the beginning to write the history of that contest between the 
sections, to set forth its causes and to justify its results, — and 
naturally in the interest of the victorious side. It is both wise 
and considerate of you to let the losing side be heard in your 
midst. If you should refuse to do so it will nevertheless be heard 
in time, before that great bar, the public opinion of the world, 
whose jurisdiction you cannot avoid, and whose verdict you can- 
not unduly influence. Neither side acts wisely in attempting to 
forestall that verdict! 

It is well to remember, too, that epithets and hard names, 
which assume the guilt that is to be proven, will not serve for 
arguments for the future Bancrofts and Hildredths of the Repub- 
lic, except for the purpose of warning them against the intem- 
perate partiality of their authors. 

The modest action of the common law should be imitated in 
the treatment of historic questions, which considers every accused 
person as innocent until his guilt is proven. Murder is treated 
as simply homicide until there is proof that the killing was felo- 
nious. 

In treating, for example, of all questions pertaining to the war, 
you assume the guilt of your adversaries at the outset. You 
speak of the secession movement as a rebellion, and you charac- 
terize all who participated in it as "rebels and traitors!" Your 
daily literature, as well as your daily conversation, teems with it. 
Your school histories and books of elementary instruction impress 
it in almost every page upon the young. Your laws. State and 
Federal, have enacted the terms. Yet every lawyer and intelli- 
gent citizen among you must be well aware that in a technical 
and legal sense there was no rebellion^ and there were no rebels! 
Should this not be admitted, however, I am sure there will be no 
denial of the fact that you once had the opportunity of obtain- 
ing an authoritative decision of the 'highest court, not only of 
the United States, but of the world, on this very question — and 
that opportunity was not embraced. 

I hope you will not be alarmed ; it is not my intention to make 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 11 

you listen to an argument in favor of the right of secession. I 
only wish to remind you of some of the p?'ima facie rea.sons why 
the people of the North — and of Massachusetts in particular — 
should not assume the verdict of history in their favor when they 
declined to test the verdict of the law. [Applause.] 

In attempting to withdraw herself from the Union of the States 
by repealing on the 20th of May, 1861, the ordinance by the 
adoption of which she had entered the Union on the 21st of 
November, 1789, against whom and what did North Carolina 
rebel? To whom had she swOrn allegiance ? Certainly to nobody ; 
to no Government; to nothing but the Constitution of the Uni- 
ted States. Whs she violating that oath when she thus withdrew? 
When Virginia and New York reserved, upon their accession to 
the Constitution, their right to withdraw from the same, and 
declared that the powers ther*^in granted might be resumed when- 
ever the same shall be perverted to '' tlieir injury or oppression," 
did those States reserve the right to commit treason? When 
Massachusetts openly threatened to separate from the Union upon 
the admission of Louisiana as a State, was she conscious that 
she was threatening treason and rebellion? When her Legislature, 
in 1803, " resolved that the annexation of Louisiana to the 
Union transcends the Constitutional power of the Government 
of the United States." and that it ''formed a new Confederacy 
to which the States united by the former compact are not bound 
to adhere;" was not that a declaration that secession was a Con- 
stitutional remedy? Again, the same principle was proclaimed 
by the authority of Massachusetts in the Hartford Convention, 
where it was declared "that when emergencies occur which are 
either beyond the reach of judicial tribunals or too pressing to 
admit of delay incident to their forms, States which have no 
common umpire must be their own judges and execute their own 
decisions." With such a record, to which might be added page 
after page of corroborating quotations from her statesmen and 
her archives, should not the ancient commonwealth of Massa- 
chusetts be a little modest in denouncing as "traitors" those 
whose sin consisted in the following of her example? It has been 
said that the ground work and essence of the doctrine of seces- 
sion was laid in the Virginia resolutions of 1798, of which Mr. 
Madison, the leading spirit, the Morning Star of the convention 
which formed the Constitution, was the author. If so, let it be 
remembered that these resolutions were submitted to every State 
in the then Union, of course including Massachusetts, were 
expressly or tacitly approved by all, and disapproved by none. 

Indeed, it may be said generally that during the period of dis- 
cussion concerning the adoption of the Constitution by the several 
States, it was taken for granted that any State becoming dissatis- 
fied might withdraw from the compact, for caitse^ of which she 



12 SKETCHES OF 

was to be her own judge. The old articles of (Confederation 
declared that the Union formed thereunder should be perpetual; 
this clause was purposely and after discussion, left out of the 
new Constitution. The great danger apprehended by the states- 
men of that day was that the Federal Government would gradu- 
ally encroach upon and absorb the rights of the States. In defer- 
ence TO this fear the Xth Amendment was adopted, chiefly on the 
urgent instigation of Massachusetts, expressly reserving to the 
States all rights not delegated. Still these fears remained. In 
fact tliese encroachments upon the rights of States have consti- 
tuted for three-fourths of a century the great distinguishing sub- 
ject of contention between American statesmen; during all of 
which time, it was claimed that secession was a Constitutional 
remedy therefor. If it had been understood that over the doors 
of the Constitution were written oiulla vestigia retrorsum ; that 
the State which entered there could never more depart thence, 
whatever might be the injuries and oppressions inflicted upon 
her, how many States would have entered therein? What would 
jealous, sensitive Massachu^^etts, Virginia, North Carolina have 
said to such a proposition? Would they have subjected their citi- 
zens to a condition of things wherein North Carolina for example 
could have hung a man in her borders if he refused to fight for 
her. and Massachusetts and the others could have hung him if 
he did? 

The essence of all crime is to be found in the criminal intent. 
Now the object of these brief references to the doctrine of seces- 
sion is to ask you and the conservative, legal sentiment of the 
Northern people how you could convict and execute a man for the 
intentional commission of a crime, when the greatest intellects 
of the whole American people had not been able to determine 
that the act committed was a crime; when the act committed 
had been pronounced a Constitutional right, an essential muni- 
xuent of freedom, by legislatures of great States, by a long line 
of great and glorious statesmen; by primary assemblages of the 
people, by conventions of great political parties, whose enuncia- 
tions received again and again the endorsement of a majority of 
tjie American people at the polls; when the ('onstitution itself 
was silent as to express words, and when no court of law had 
ever found by implication or legal deduction that this act was a 
crime! The idea of holding the citizen up to all the legal penal- 
ties and responsibilities of treason under such circumstances is 
revolting to our sense of human justice. Now if you would not 
or could not thus inflict upon him the severe penalties of law, is 
it jusl. is it fair, is it christian charity to assume his guilt and 
visit upon him socially and politically all the odium of one actu- 
ally condemned; so lar as daily, hourly iteration can do it? May 
we not fairly retort upon you that if secession be indeed a crime — 



PKOMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 1 



o 



you taught it to us. Sir Edward Coke says of copy-hold tenures, 
that though of base descent, they are ot a most ancient house; 
we can say here that though secession be an infamous doctrine, 
yet it had a most illustrious origin, Virginia and Massachusetts. 
[Loud applause.] 

Oh, wise and patriotic enemy of secession who fought that 
monster by a "substitute," and who enriched yourself by specu- 
lation on the distresses and confusions of war, spare us! 
[Laughter.] 

Oh, brave, true soldiers of the Union, and all you people who 
had honest convictions of the uq wisdom of our acts, ye who 
fought and sacrificed for love of country and its fair autonomy, 
spare us, who were equally brave, equally honest, but not equally 
fortunate! 

Again, my friends, we of the South have most serious cause to 
complain of you in reference to your efforts to forestall history 
in regard to the causes which led to secession and war. It is 
written: '' Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neigh- 
bor." You say that it was slavery, and slavery alone, that caused 
the war. In your literature it is spoken of as the *•' slave-holders' 
rebellion." A false shot out of both barrels! Slavery was the 
occasion, not the cause of war. You put us in the position not 
only of traitors and rebels but of becoming such for the privi- 
lege of holding human beings in bondage, thereby heaping upon 
us all the reproach and opprobrium that such a thing renders 
possible. This is at once a misrepreser.tation and an injustice. 
The great majority of the people of the South entertained in the 
abstract as much repugnance to slave holding as you did. 

Their fault in respect to slavery, as with secession, was not all 
to be charged upon them. As usual, Massachusetts comes in for 
the lion's share Boston and Providence slavers vexed the seas 
in their ungodly se^irch for kidnapped Africans to be bought in 
exchange for New England nun and sold to the Southern Planta- 
tions, against which Old Virginia and other Southern States pro- 
tested. 

Nay, by reference to the history of the Constitution it will be 
seen that New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and 
Connecticut united with North Carolina, South Carolina and 
•Georgia in postponing the suppression of the slave trade for 
twenty years, in the lormation of that instrument: tlie Southern 
States because they wanted the slaves, the Northern States 
because they had large shipping interests engaged in the profit of 
buying and carrying them to market, "The horrors of the 
middle passage " belonged to you ; we only bought your wares. 
The desire to protect her infant industries was thus manifested 
even at that early day against her ancient rival, England, whose 
" pauper labor " was engaged in the same trade. 



14 SKETCHES OF 

So, too, a fierce arraignment of King George III, for forcing 
the slave trade upon the colonies was inserted by Mr. Jefferson 
in the original draft of the Declaration of Independence. It 
was stricken out at the instigation of the Eastern States as well 
as Southern, because it was felt to be a reflection on citizens of 
Massachusetts and of Rhode Island engaged in the slave trade. 
Slavery and the slave trade were in full and cruel operation in 
Massachusetts before there was a white man's home in North 
Carolina, a slave trade which not only impcirted Africans, but 
exported Africans, Indians, and, worst of all, our own race — the 
people of our own blood I How slavery grew and ramified through 
all the South, under the natural stimulus of climate and produc- 
tions, and how the abstract sentiment against it was extinguished 
by the political necessities of the times, arising from the fierce 
attacks made upon it by the States to whose climate and pursuits 
it was unsuited, and who therefore sold out, quit business and 
turned philanthropists! All this is an old, old story; and I only 
allude to it to remind you that you are not at liberty to cast the 
first stone. [Applause] 

The ownership of slaves and the regulation of the system were 
left to the exclusive control of the States, not only by the Tenth 
amendment, which reserved to them all rights and powers not 
expressly granted to the Federal government, hut its existence 
was specially recognized and its safety specially provided for in 
the Constitution itself. It being a matter, therefore, of purely 
domestic concern, wholly within the control of the States, the 
attempt to interfere with it by the Federal government in any 
shape, directly or indirectly, was justly regarded as a violation 
of constitutional right, and injurious to that perfect equality of 
the States guaranteed by the Constitution. That is why we went 
to war. Slavery happened to be the particular item or instance 
wherein this equality was assailed; and in resistance to this 
attempt of the Federal Government to interfere within a State 
in a matter which peculiarly pertained to that State we resorted 
to secession as a peaceable remedy. The thing which made our 
forefathers hesitate to adopt the Constitution at all, had here 
come upon us, and the remedy which our forefathers — and 
yours — had suggested as the only one proper or possible, was 
naturally resorted to. 

Had it been conceded by submission that the Federal Govern- 
ment could interfere in the matter of slavery, we would have 
been logically precluded from resistance to like interference for any 
other causp whatever, and there was an end to the rights and equal- 
ity of the States under the Constitution forever; and therefore an 
end to the freedom, sovereignty, and independence of each State 
which, according to all writers and statesmen, north and south, 
was retained by them when they acceded to the Constitution. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 15 

The followiDg admirable sketch of Governor Vance is 
taken frqm an article from the pen of Hon. K. P. Battle, 
published in the University Magazine, of March, 1887: 

The subject of this sketch was born in the, county of 
Buncombe, near the seat of justice, Asheville, in the 
mountains of North Carolina, on the 13th of May, 1830. 
His father was a most respected merchant His mother's 
father, Zebuloi. Baird, was one of the trusted citizens of 
Buncombe, for many years chosen as their representative 
in the General Assembly. 

His father died when lie was quite young. His mother 
devoted herself to his training witli the loving and intel- 
ligent care which so often distinguish and reward the 
women of our land Her slender means, however, pre- 
vented her giving him other education in his boyhood 
than was afforded by the country schools, in which Pike's 
Arithmetic and Webster's Elementary Spelling Book 
were the chief text books. But young Zeb. had an 
inquiring mind. He read with avidity every volume 
within his reach, and being gifted with great quickness 
and a strong memory, in his boyhood he began the accu- 
mulation of the stores of illustrations and strong appo- 
site diction which have made him conspicuous in his 
manhood. He had access to few books, but those were 
good ones. A gentleman, fresh from the senior class of 
the University, traveling in Buncombe, was amazed at 
finding the superior acquaintance and aptness of quota- 
tions from the Bible, Shakespeare and Scott's novels dis- 
played by our halt-grown and half-educated mountain 
iDoy, and twenty-five ^^ears ago predicted his subsequent 
success. 

In 1852 young Vance went to the University of North 
Carolina where he spent a year. He stood among the 
first in the branches to which he devoted himself. He 
here began the study of law and soon after was admitted 
to the bar; he made Asheville his home, and soon com- 
manded a fair share of practice; he early became influ- 
ential with the jury, humor and ready eloquence telling 



16 . SKETCHES OF 

on the mind of the average mountaineer. He tells on 
himself with much glee the first compliment he received 
for his forensic efforts. "Zeb.,if you can only 'get a past 
the Judge, I'd as lief have you as any old lawyer." It 
was no( long before his "getting past the Judge " was 
not a subject of doubt. 

Like most young men of active and ambitious minds, 
Mr. Vance went early into politics. He was elected to 
the Legislature in 1854, where he was one of the most 
prominent among the young men, being an enthusiastic 
Henry Clay Whig. His peculiar powers were not fully 
developed, however, until 1858, when he took the stump 
in opposition to the late W. W. Avery, as a candidate for 
the National House of Representatives in the mountain 
district. 

This district had once been Whig. The people, how- 
ever, were devoted to Thomas L. Clingman, who for many 
years represented them in Congress. When Mr. Cling- 
man swung around to the Democratic side lie retained 
his ascendancy, notwithstanding his change of base, car- 
rying the district in 1857 by two thousand majority over 
his Whig opponent. When, in consequence of being pro- 
moted to the Senate, he resigned his seat, it was generally 
thought that Mr. Avery, a man strong in debate and of 
influential family, would easily fill the vacancy. When 
Mr. Vance announced his intention to oppose him, he was 
applauded for his gallantry but laughed at for his sup- 
posed folly. In this campaign Mr. Vance, then only 
twenty-eight years old, displayed those qualities of a 
stump orator and leader of men for which he is now so 
conspicuous and unequaled — quick at repartee, teeming 
with anecdotes, which he tells with happy humor ; able to 
pass at will from mirth-moving fun to invective, eloquence 
and pathos. By his power of presenting arguments 
and facts in an interesting light, his consummate tactai'd 
winning ways, "he stole away the hearts of the people." 
He was elected by as large a majority as the year before 
had been given to his Democratic predecessor. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 17 

In the following year David Coleman, another distin- 
guished Democrat, measured his strength with the young 
Whig, but the effort to diminish his majority failed. 
Coleman met the fate of Avery, and thenceforth Mr. 
Vance was supreme west of the Blue Ridge. 

In Congress he was an active and watchful member : 
he took sides strongl3^and labored earnestly against seces- 
sion, at the same time w^arning the country against coer- 
cion of the Southern States by force of arms. His appeals 
for the Union in Congress and before the people were 
earnest and powerful, but when Sumter was fired upon, like 
ail the leading Union men of North Carolina, Badger, Gra- 
ham, Rufiin, Gilmer and others, believing in the right of 
revolution, he cast his lot with his native State and took 
up arms against the Union. 

Whatever Mr. Vance does he does with all his might. 
He was one of the earliest volunteers, marching to the 
seat of war in Virginia as a Captain in May, 1861. It 
was not long before his promotion came, he having been 
elected Colonel of the Twenty sixth Regiment of North 
Carolina Troops in August, 1861. He was amoiig the 
brave fighters who drove McClellan to his ehips on the 
James, and brought his regiment off safely when Branch's 
little army was overwhelmed by Burnside at Newberne. 
He shared cheerfully all the hardships and dangers of his 
men. 

He was a faithful and gallant officer, and civilians and 
soldiers united in the demand that he should be the next 
Governor of North Carolina. He was chosen by an over- 
whelming majority in 1862, and tw^o years later over the 
late Governor W. W. Holden. 

As Governor of North Carolina in those troublous times, 
Mr. Vance displayed talents for which even his most 
ardent admirers had not given him credit. Blessed with 
a s^iong frame and hardy constitution, he was able to go 
through an incredible amount of hard work, mental and 
physical. He exhibited administrative and executive 
powers of the highest order. It became his duty to aid 

2 



18 SKETCHES OF 

the Confederate Government in securing and maintain- 
ing in its armies the military contingent of North Car- 
olina. It was likewise his duty to assist, as commander- 
in-chief of the militia, in repellinginvasion of its territory. 
It was his province to execute largely the functions of a 
war minister, and when the full history of the war shall 
be written, it will be found that he excelled all Southern 
Governors in vigor and ability in these regards. He kept 
his State up to the full measure of its obligation under 
the Constitution of the Confederacy. At the same time, 
he was watchful that there should be no infringement of 
the rights of the State. 

In the midst of the very death struggle of the war, he 
insisted that the military should be subordinate to the 
civil powers. It should be known and remembered 
throughout the civilized world that all during the time 
when the Confederacy was vainly fighting for life, and 
when one fourth of the State was overrun by contending 
armies, the great privilege of the writ of habeas corpus 
was never suspended. North Carolina had Judges firm 
enough to issue that great writ, and a Governor brave 
enough to enforce its mandates in the midst of conscript 
camps, even in the lines of troops drawn up in order of 
battle. While Mr. Vance took care that there should be 
no skulkers or deserters among those liable under the 
conscript law, he took equal care that all who claimed 
they were not liable, should have, on their petition, an 
impartial hearing before a judicial officer. 

It was by his efforts, likewise, that supplies of clothing 
and other needful articles were regularly imported from 
England, through the blockading squadron at Wilming- 
ton. All during 1863 and 1864, the departure and arri- 
val of the " Advance" were watched for with breathless 
interest by the soldiers of North Carolina, whose wants 
the Confederate Government could not supply. And 
when, in the excitement during the trial of Wirz for bad 
treatment of Federal prisoners, efforts were made by the 
enemies of Mr. Vance to connect him with the sufferings 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 19 

of the Salisbury prison, an examination showed that he 
had been active in alleviating those sufferings. 

During 1864 there sprang up in North Carolina a reac- 
tionary party, lieaded by Holden and others, composed 
of those who had despaired of the success of the Confed- 
eracy. But Governor Vance took the ground that the 
power of making peace had been devolved on that gov- 
ernment, and that any separate State action would bring 
not only disgrace but ruin to the State. He therefore 
struggled with unfaltering constancy for Southern success 
until the surrender of General Johnston to General 
Sherman. 

He now laid down his high office with dignity, conscious 
that he had done his best and that defeat of his plans 
w^as the act of God. He renewed his vows of allegiance 
to the general government, determined thenceforth to 
contribute all that in him lay to the advancement of his 
native State and the dignity and glory of the Union. 

He was arrested after the close of the war, and suffered 
imprisonment at Washington on account of his prom- 
inence in the struggle, but on examination of his letter- 
books and other documents, it was found that his conduct 
in the struggle was according to the rules of civilized 
warfare, and the sentiment of the North being against 
personal punishment for treason, he was honorably dis- 
charged. 

Governor Vance then returned to the practice of his 
profession, making Charlotte his home. 

In 1870 he was elected Senator of the United States, 
but on account of the disabilities imposed by the four- 
teenth amendment to the Constitution, was not allowed 
to take his seat. 

In 1872 he was the nominee of the Democratic party 
of the Legislature for the same high office, but was defeated 
in the election, by a coalition between a few friends of 
Judge Merriraon, and the Republicans. He was nom- 
inated for Governor of North Carolina by the Democrats 
in 1876, and was elected by a large majority over his 



20 SKETCHES OF 

opponent, Judge Settle. This canvass will long be remem- 
bered in North Carolina. He received the degree LL. D. 
from Davidson College in 1867. 

In 1878 he was again the nominee of the Democrats 
of the Legislature for United States Senator, and was this 
time elected. This position he has held ever since. His 
fame as a statesman has continued to grow, until he is 
now widely known all over the Union as a leader of the 
Democratic wing of the Senate. He is ever fearless in 
his efforts to do that which will benefit his constituents 
most. 

Senator Vance is a married man and has four children. 
He is exceedingly lovable in private life, and has more 
warm, personal friends, probably, than any man in North 
Carolina ; he is an especial favorite with those judges of 
a kind heart, ladies and children. He bubbles over with 
fun and anecdote, his bon mots Sive quoted throughout the 
State. " Have you heard Vance's last?" is a common 
mode of commencing a jovial conversation. 

He is distinguished as a lecturer, and is often called on 
by literary societies, and by those desiring to aid charita- 
ble institutions by receipts at the door of the lecture hall. 
His lecture on the "Scattered Nation," delivered some 
years ago in Baltimore, Charleston, Norfolk and other 
cities outside of North Carolina, won the highest enco- 
miums of press and public; his more recent lectures in 
Boston, New York and Baltimore, in regard to " The 
South," have been greatly praised. The Senator has 
found time to read much on social, historical and polit- 
ical subjects, and has the power of presenting his views 
in an attractive and interesting manner. 

When in North Carolina, the Senator resides at Gom- 
broon, his beautiful mountain residence. He has been 
aptly called " The Sage of Gombroon." May he live 
many years, and continue to give North Carolina and the 
Union the benefit of his wise counsels and wise legislation . 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 21 



Ho:^. THOMAS JOKDAN JAEVIS. 

Among the first settlers who penetrated the unbroken 
forests of the Albemarle about the middle of the seven- 
teenth century was Thomas Jarvis, and from that time 
to the present the name has been a familiar one to the 
people of that section. During the revolutionary war 
Gen. Samuel Jarvis led the forces of that district to the 
rendezvous on Deep River to cover expected operations 
from South Carolina. A scion of the same family is 
Thomas Jordan Jarvis, who was born in Currituck 
county, on January 18th, 1836. Straitened circumstances 
denied him the advantages of early education, but by the 
aid of friends he entered Randolph-Macon College, and 
with money earned by teaching at intervals, he com- 
pleted his course there, graduating in 1860, when he 
again established himself as a teacher. 

In June, 1861, when the State called upon her sons for 
volunteers, he closed his school in Pasquotank county 
and enlisted as a soldier for the war. His service was in 
both the 17th and the 8th Regiment of State Troops, and 
as Captain of a company in the latter regiment he dis- 
played fortitude, endurance and bravery that were not 
excelled by any of his associates in arms. He was an 
excellent soldier— brave, cool, determined and unflinch- 
ing in the presence of danger. Called to endure many 
perils and vicissitudes he escaped unscathed until on the 
17th of May, 1864, at Drury's Bluff, he received a wound 
that disabled him, and since then his right arm has hung 
paralyzed and useless at his side. 

When peace came, he turned to mercantile pursuits 
and opened a store in Tyrrell county, at the same time 
studying law and entering quickly upon the activities of 
life. In the fall of 1865 he was elected to the State Con- 
vention from Currituck, and thus began his career as a 
public man. Obtaining his license the following year, he 
entered zealously upon the practice of the law, evincing. 



22 SKETCHES OP 

however, a patriotic interest in those political questions 
which so deeply agitated the people of the State at that 
period. 

In 1868 he was elected as a Democrat to the Legisla- 
ture, from Tyrrell, and in the fall made an extensive can- 
vass as an Elector on the Seymour and Blair ticket. 
When the Legislature met, he allied himself with John W. 
Graham, Plato Durham, Jas. L. Robinson and the few 
other Democrats of that bod3%in strenuous opposition to 
the measures of the Republican majority. They were 
but a handful of gallant spirits who threw themselves in 
the breach; but they stood steadfast, unmovable in their 
adherence to the interests of the State, and as the session 
grew, so arose the fame of these young men, whose posi- 
tion gave them leadership in the Democratic part}^ and 
whose wisdom and prudence and sterling worth won 
them the confidence of the people. Their triumph in 
establishing the Bragg-Phillips Investigating Committee 
and in repealing the special tax laws, was complete, and 
the people loved to do them honor. To their action was 
largely due the course of events which culminated in a 
Waterloo defeat of the Republicans at the ensuing elec- 
tion, the pacification of the State at that early date, and 
the possibility of the State's entering so soon upon an 
era of quiet and prosperity. When the new Assembly 
met, Capt. Jarvis was tendered the Speaker's chair — and 
he discharged with marked address and acceptability the 
delicate duties of that post. The Democratic-Conserva- 
tive party was then in a formative state, and the Speaker 
exercised a great influence in welding the discordant 
fragments of the old parties into a solid and enduring 
organization. At the end of that Assembly in 1872 he 
returned to the lav/, forming a partnership with David 
M. Carter — but canvassed the State as an Elector on the 
Greeley ticket. Three years later he was a member of 
the Constitutional Convention, from Pitt, and to his ad- 
dress and the prudence of Gov. Reid was due the power 
of the Democracy to control that body, which was evenly 
divided between the parties. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 23 

In 1876 Gov. Vance was nominated for Governor and 
Capt. Jarvis was placed on the ticket with him, making 
again an extensive canvass throughout the western coun- 
ties. Two years later he succeeded Gov. Vance, and on 
the expiration of that term, he was chosen Governor by 
the people for a full term. During tliese six years in 
which he was Governor, he impressed himself more on 
the active industries of the State than any other Gover- 
nor we have ever had. In council he was prudent and 
searching; in action bold and progressive. He believed 
that the people looked to the occupant of the executive 
office to give direction to public measures, and he was 
not afraid to .assume responsibility. When he saw a 
duty clearly, he pressed forward vigorously to its full 
discharge, and he regarded that the Governor of the State 
was in some measure the head of the party as well as the 
director of public affairs. In every political campaign 
he largely participated — giving a detailed account of his 
stewardship and demanding public confidence in his 
administration because of its cleanness, integrity and 
rigid performance of every duty and strict adherence to 
every pledge. He knew no favorite section in his duties 
as Governor, but worked persistently for the benefit and 
advantage of all sections. He secured the adoption of 
the county government system for the East — the con- 
struction of the Western N. C. Railroad for tlie West. 
And, indeed, it may be asserted that no State can boast a 
more splendid administration than that of Gov. Jarvis — 
one in which, considering the poor facilities and crippled 
resources at hand, more has been accomplished for the 
erection of public institutions, for the advancement of 
education and for the promotion of beneficent public pur- 
poses and the establishment of industrial prosperity. 
On his retirement from the executive office, he was 
appointed by President Cleveland U. S. Minister to Brazil, 
which distinguished post he still fills. 

Gov. Jarvis is by no means a brilliant man, but he is a 
logical reasoner — is clear in his conceptions and has a 



24 SKETCHES OF 

mind capable of comprebendiDg the details of the most 
complicated subject. As a speaker, he is slow and delib- 
erate ; plain in his statements, but forcible in expression ; 
ready with homely illustrations and convincing in his 
argumentation. His speeches never tire his audience, 
and although they do not abound in high flights of ora- 
tory, they please, interest, instruct and convince. A.s a 
popular speaker, he is indeed of rare excellence. 



HoK ALFEED MOORE SCALES, 

GOVEKNOR OF NORTH CAROLINA, 

Was born November 26th, 1827, at Ingleside, the 
homestead of his father. Dr. Robert H. Scales, in Rock- 
ingham county. He attended school at the Caldwell 
Institute, and in 1846 entered the Junior Class at Chapel 
Hill, remaining there only one session. On leaving the 
University, he taught a free school in his native county, 
w^hich afterwards became a subscription school. He 
taught in the Caldwell Institute one year, after which he 
began the study of law wnth Judge Settle, and later with 
Judge Battle. In 1852 he was elected County Solicitor. 
He was a member of the House of Commons m 1852-'3. 
In 1855 he was a candidate for Congress, as a Democrat, 
in his district, which usually gave a Whig majority of one 
thousand. He was defeated, but by a largely decreased 
majority. In 1854 he was again elected to the Legislature, 
where he served asChairruan of the Finance Committee. 
In 1B57 he was again a candidate for Congress, and after 
a spirited contest was elected over his former competitor, 
Hon. R C. Puryear. Two years later he was unani- 
mously nominated for re-election, but was defeated by 
General J. M. Leach, the Whig nominee. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 25 

In 1858 General 8cales was elected Clerk and Master 
of the Equity Court of Rockingham county, and held the 
office until the civil war began. He was nominated, with 
Governor D. S. Reid, on the ticket in favor of the Con- 
vention of 1861, and was opposed by Dr. E. T. Brodnax 
and Thos. Settle — the campaign was made by Scales and 
Settle. Several States had withdrawn from the Union, 
but General Scales did not favor immediate secession. 
He wished to save the Union ; if that failed, then to 
declare our intentions, and act in accord with our sister 
States. The opponents made the contest a question of 
Union or dissolution. When the contest began there was 
very little sentiment in favor of a convention, but at the 
close of the brief campaign General Scales was defeated 
by only one hundred and fifty majority. 

In 1860 he was elector on the Breckinridge and Lane 
ticket. 

Soon after Lincoln's call for troops, General Scales vol- 
unteered as a private, but was at once elected Captain of 
his company. He succeeded Pender as Colonel of the 
Thirteenth North Carolina Regiment, and was engaged in 
the skirmishes at Yorktown, in the battle of Williams- 
burg and the fights around Richmond. He was at 
Fredericksburg, and in Jackson's flank movement at 
Chancel lorsville, where he was shot through the thigh. 
In the latter battle, he continued to chase the enemy 
until loss of blood and fatigue forced him to halt. The 
Thirteenth Regiment in this battle displayed a noble 
daring, and justly won the praise of General Pender, who 
said to the soldiers of the regiment, " I have nothing to 
say to you but to hold you all up as models in duty, 
courage and daring." In the report of the battle, Gen- 
eral Pender says: "Colonel Scales, of the Thirteenth 
Regiment, was wounded, and thus I was deprived of as 
gallant a man as is to be found in the service." General 
Scales was sent home on account of his wound, the day 
after the battle, and while there recovering from its effects 
he was made Brigadier General. General Garland, of 



26 SKETCHES OF 

Virginia, was in command of the brigade which embraced 
Scales' regiment, and in his report of the battle of Cold 
Harbor says: " Colonel Scales, of the Thirteenth North 
Carolina, was conspicuous for his fine bearing. Seizing 
the colors of his regiment at a critical moment at Cold 
Harbor, and advancing to the front, he called upon the 
Thirteenth to stand to them, thus restoring confidence 
and keeping his men in position." In the first day's 
fight at Gettysburg, General Scales was severely wounded 
by a shell just before the Confederates reached Seminary 
Ridge ; and from that time he was engaged in all the 
battles of the Army of Northern Virginia, except the final 
struggle at Appomattox, at which time he was at home 
on sick furlough. 

After the close of the war. General Scales resumed the 
practice of law, with much success. In 1874 he was 
elected to the Forty-fourth Congress, and was re-elected 
to the Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh and Forty- 
eighth Congresses, where he served his constituents ad- 
vantageously, and exercised an influence in Congress 
which none but experienced members can. 

In 1884 General Scales received the nomination of his 
party for the office of Governor of North Carolina, and 
was elected by over twenty thousand majority, probably 
the largest majority ever received by any candidate for 
that office. 

Governor Scales possesses those sturdy elements of 
character which make up a good and true man. Strong 
and constant in his principles ; sound in judgment ; open 
and honest before men; gentle in manners and loving in 
disposition — a man whose public and private life is with- 
out blemish. 

The reports of his war record from which the above 
quotations are taken, and the high offices he has repeat- 
edly held, proclaim his virtues and the love of his fellow- 
citizens, more eloquently and justly than can be done in 
so brief a notice of his life here. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 27 

Hon. DAVID SETTLE REID, 

OF REIDSVILLE. 

The subject of this sketch is a very striking instance 
of a self-made man. He was born the 19th of April, 
1813, in Rockingham county. 

According to Wheeler's History, "he studied law and 
was admitted to practice in 1843. His first appearance 
in public life was in 1835, as Senator from Rockingham; 
he was re-elected continuously until 1840. 

"In 1843 he was elected a member of Congress, and 
served until 1847, with great acceptability to his constitu- 
ents. 

"In 1848, without his concurrence or knowledge, he 
was nominated for Governor and was defeated by a small 
majority. In 1850, when he had positively, by letter 
published, declined the nomination, he was again nomi- 
nated by the Democratic Convention and was elected." 

He made a brilliant canvass and changed the politics 
of the State. He was the first Democratic Governor 
ever elected in North Carolina. He was a great advocate 
of free suffrage, which he succeeded in bringing about, 
despite the most powerful opposition. 



Hon. ALFEED MOOKE WADDELL, 

OF WILMINGTON, 

Was born in Hillsboro, Orange county, N. C, on the 
16th of September, 1834. After the usual rudimentary 
schooling which fell to the lot of boys in those days, he 
was prepared for college, in part, by that celebrated 



28 SKETCHES OF 

teacher, Wm. Bingham, Sr., whose school was then estab- 
lished at Hillsboro, and afterwards at the Caldwell Insti- 
tute, from which he entered Chapel Hill in 1850. He 
graduated in 1853, and having chosen the profession of 
law, was admitted to the bar in, his twenty-first year. 
Shortly afterwards he removed to Wilmington and 
entered upon the practice of his profession. In July, 
1860, he purchased the " Wilmington Herald" the leading 
Whig paper of the Cape Fear section, and edited it until 
some time in 1861. He was earnestl}^ opposed to seces- 
sion, believing that the South could secure the just rights 
for which she was contending within the Union, and he 
combated that movement with vigor and ability. But 
when North Carolina elected to cast in her fortunes with 
her sister States, he fell into line with the zeal of a true 
and loyal son. In 1861 he joined the Confederate army. 
He was for a while Adjutant, and afterwards Lieutenant 
Colonel of the 41st N. C. Regiment— the 3d Cavalry — 
and served with that command until August, 1864, when 
his health, which was never good, gave wa/, and he was 
compelled to resign. 

Upon the close of the war he returned to Wilmington, 
and in partnership with his distinguished father, Hon. 
Hugh Waddell, resumed the profession of law, and soon 
acquired a lucrative and steadily increasing practice. 

The year 1870 was a memorable one in the history of 
North Carolina. The State was under the complete con- 
trol and dominion of the Republicans, who were deter- 
mined to retain themselves in power at any and all cost. 
Kirk and his brutal hirelings were overrunning a large 
portion of the State, the civil law was "exhausted," and 
drumhead courts-martial were in vogue. The outlook 
was gloomy. The Congressional elections w^ere near at 
hand. The nominee of the Democratic Convention in 
the 3d district had declined to encounter what was then 
regarded as certain defeat. The Executive Committee 
was in despair. The election was only seventeen days 
off, and Oliver H. Dockery, the sitting member, was the 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 29 

Republican candidate, and had been for some days 
actively canvassing the district. In a happy moment 
the committee turned to Col. Waddell, and appealed to 
him to accept the nomination and tight the hopeless fight. 
Bowing to the call of duty and the necessities of his 
party, he accepted, and immediately started to meet his 
opponent. Dockery was a strong man on the stump, and 
was not only personally popular in the district, but was 
backed by the prestige of his father, who had long been 
a power in that section of the Stale. Their meeting was 
looked forward to with eagerness, and by some with 
anxiety; for Col. Waddell had had little or no experience 
on the stump, while his opponent was a strong debater 
and a consummate politician. Dockery was overwhelmed 
and vanquished at the outset, and each succeeding meet- 
ing buL added additional evidence that he was no match 
for his op|)onent, who proved himself to be ready and 
fearless in debate and fertile of resource. Col. Waddell 
was elected by a handsome majority, and the district, 
w^iich Dockery had carried in the last election by some 
2,000 majority, was redeemed. He took his seat in 1871 
and served continuously until 1879, having been re-elect- 
ed in 1872, 1874 and 1876, and each time by increased 
majorities. 

The first speech made by Col. Waddell in the House 
was in April, 1872, on the condition of the South. He 
was then one of the five Democrats who composed the 
minority of the special committee of thirteen known as 
the " Ku Klux Committee." The speech was a manly 
and elo([uent defense of his people from the bitter and 
venomous slanders w4iich had been poured upon them, 
and was received by the House with marked attention. 
It elicited much praise and gained for him the respect 
and friendship of the leaders of his party in the House, 
and he was soon recognized as one of the ablest of the 
Southern members. He was early placed on the Post 
Office Committee, and in 1877 was appointed its chair- 
man, which position he occupied during the remainder 



30 SKETCHES OF 

of his service in Congress, making the most acceptable 
chairman that had presided over that committee in many 
years. 

Perliaps the speech which attracted most attention was 
the one delivered by him in January, 1876, upon the 
Centennial Bill. Many papers North and South had 
kind words of praise for the speech, and Col. Wad deli 
received many handsome compliments from distinguished 
men of both parties. Mr. Hendricks, though not person- 
ally acquainted with him, wrote from Indianapolis to a 
mutual friend, begging him to express to Col. Waddell 
his thanks for the "exquisite speech," which had delighted 
the Democrats of his State. 

In 1878 he was again nominated, but failed of an 
election. Many causes combined to effect his defeat. It 
was an off year in politics, and a fatal over-confidence 
among the Democrats in their strength, and in the weak- 
ness of their enemies, conspired to the result. A severe 
attack of illness had prevented Col. Waddell from taking 
the field until late in the canvass, and even then unfitted 
him to prosecute it with that vigor and energy which 
had marked his former campaigns. In this election only 
about half the usual vote was polled. 

In 1880 Col. Waddell was a delegate-at- large to the 
National Convention, which met in Cincinnati and 
nominated Hancock. In this Convention he was a mem- 
ber of the committee to prepare a platform, and in a short 
speech he earnestly urged that the word "only" in the 
Tariff plank be stricken out. He did not favor tariff for 
revenue only; and it might have been well for the party 
at that time had his suggestion been acted upon, for the 
tariff plank, more than anything else, defeated Hancock. 

After the convention Col. Waddell was invited by lead- 
ing men of the party to canvass for the ticket in some of 
the Northern States. He accepted, and spent several 
months in the New England States, New York and 
Pennsylvania, addressing large meetings of Democrats 
and Republicans wherever he went, notably in New 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 31 

Haven, Montpelier, Bath, Burlington, Williamsburg, 
Brooklyn and New York. His speeches were character- 
ized by that candor and manly frankness which are such 
marked traits of Col. Waddell, and commanded the 
respect and admiration of his hearers. He did much to 
allay sectional feeling. 

In 1882 Col. Waddell went to Charlotte to take edito- 
rial charge of the " Charlotte Journal,'^ afterwards the 
Journal- Observer. Upon severing his connection with 
the Journal- Observer he returned to Wilmington and the 
practice of the law, in which he is now engaged. 

Col. Waddell is a vigorous thinker, a fine belles-lettres 
schular, a facile and polished writer, and a graceful and 
eloquent speaker. Endowed with a high order of ability, 
a discriminating mind, and a retentive memory, he has 
greatly improved these gifts of nature by a wide and 
catholic range of reading and study, and all these accom- 
plishments unite with a high sense of honor, a gentle 
and fascinating humor, and a rare power of conversation 
to form him a most genial, gifted and lovable gentleman. 
There are few, if any men so thoroughly familiar with 
the history of the State and of her distinguished men, 
from its earliest settlement, and he has been frequently 
mentioned as the one to write that history of which the 
necessity has been recently so often and so urgently sug- 
gested. 

No higher evidence of the honor and esteem in which 
he is held abroad has been given than his selection to 
deliver the annual address at the recent reunion of the 
army of Northern Virginia, in Richmond. The admira- 
ble address which he delivered on that occasion and in 
which he so eloquently vindicated the claim of Petti- 
grew's Division to immortal honor won on the heights of 
Gettysburg, received the warmest praise and commenda- 
tion from all who heard it or have read it. 



32 SKETCHES OF 

Hoi^. WM. M. KOBBINS, 

OF STATESVILLE. 

Born in Randolph county; is fiftj^-six years old; was 
raised on a farm, wiiere his summers were passed at hard 
work and his winters in ^oing to school at the country 
academy ; was fond of books, and his father was earnest 
in trying to educate his children ; spent two years at 
Randolph-Macon College, and graduated there with the 
first distinction ; was Professor of Mathematics (teaching 
also classes in the languages,) at Trinity for a year or two ; 
studied law; went to Alabama shortly before the war and 
was beginning the practice of law; secession occurring, 
he volunteered as a private in a conapany of infantry from 
Perry county, and served first forty days in January and 
February, 1861, in garrison at Forts Morgan and Gaines, 
at the mouth of Mobile Bay ; returning to his home in 
Marion, he joined the Fourth Alabama Infantry Regi- 
ment, and was chosen First Lieutenant of Company G; 
he accompanied this regiment to Virginia, starting the 
24ih April, 1861, and served w^th it through the war, 
becoming its Major by regular promotion after many 
seniors ; was at Harper's Ferry with Joe Johnston in May, 
1861, and was present at the surrender at Appomattox, 
in April, 1865. His command served generally in Long- 
street's corps, and he was engaged in most of the great 
battles in the East and some in the West (with Long- 
street) — first Manassas, Seven Pines, the seven days' 
battles on the Chickahominy, second Manassas, South 
Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chick- 
amauga, Knoxville, Wilderness, Petersburg — besides 
innumerable other minor combats; received several 
scratches, and was once desperately wounded, at Wilder- 
ness. 

Emancipation having Africanized his home in Ala- 
bama, he resolved, at the close of the war, to spend the 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 33 

remainder of bis life in his native State of North Car- 
olina, and accordingly settled at Salisbury and opened 
his law office in December, 1865, v/ithout a dollar in his 
pocket. 

He had only begun business there, when the agitations 
connected with Reconstruction came on, and his friends, 
having found he had some gifts as a public speaker and 
writer, and was an enthusiastic ex-Rebel and Democrat, 
thrust him into politics against his earnest protest. His 
tastes and ambition had never leaned in that direction ; 
he preferred to devote himself to his profession, in which 
he had already been sadly interrupted by four years of 
soldiering, and thus mitigate his poverty and provide for 
his wife and children. But his protestations were disre- 
garded, and he was (it may be truthfully said) conscripted 
as a candidate, and elected to the Senate of North Car- 
olina in April, 1868, from the district comf)osed of the 
counties of Rowan and Davie. That was what is known 
as the " Reconstruction " Legislature, overwhelmingly Re- 
publican in both houses, and which broke down the credit 
of the State by its extravagant and. reckless appropria- 
tions of Special Tax Bonds. All these wild measures he 
opposed with all his might, predicting publicly on the 
Senate floor (what has proven true) that the taxpayers of 
North Carolina would never recognize or pay those bonds. 
His efforts for tiie time being were ineffectual, except to 
draw down upon him the bitter hatred and spite of some 
of the baser leaders of the dominant faction. He was 
re-elected in 1870, and was a member of the Senate of 
1871-'2, which tried the case of impeachment, and con- 
victed and deposed the Governor. 

In 1872 he was nominated and elected to Congress 
from the Seventh District by a majority of sixteen hun- 
dred over Judge Furches; re elected, in 1874, over Dr. 
Cook, and again, in 1876, over Colonel Dula, his major- 
ities in both these elections being over four thousand. 
He was a faithful and laborious representative during 
his six years' service in Congress; was scarcely ever 

3 



34 SKETCHES OF 

absent from his place or missed a vote ; was looked upon by 
the House as one of its most trustworthy, well-informed 
and promising members. While not often occupying the 
floor in extended debate, some of his speeches, as, for in- 
stance, those on the Civil Rights Bill, the Internal Rev- 
enue, the Centennial Exhibition, the Sugar Tariff, &c., &c., 
attracted much attention and won him great applause. 
He had succeeded in achieving a position of high influ- 
ence and usefuhiess in the House of Representatives, hav- 
ing been appointed during his last term to a place near 
the head of the leading committee, that of Ways and 
Means. Had he been continued in Congress, with the 
experience and influence he had acquired, there is reason 
to believe he would have rendered, as a Representative, 
much valuable service to his State and country. But, 
without any complaint whatever against him, he was left 
out at the end of the Forty-fifth Congress, in obedience to 
the popular idea of rotation in office. 

Returning at once, in 1879, to the practice of his pro- 
fession, and prosecuting it with zeal and energy, he has 
succeeded in building up a large and lucrative business; 
and in spite of the disadvantage of having lost fourteen 
of his best years, from the study and practice of law, by 
war and politics, he has the assured prospect, if life and 
health last, of soon winning, by his hard work, quick- 
ness of apprehension, fondness for study, ripe scholarship 
:and power as an advocate, recognition as one among the 
front rank of the legal profession in North Carolina. 

Mr. Robbins is a Methodist in his church relations, but 
too broad-minded and liberal-hearted to limit his sym- 
pathies and fraternal associations to the bounds of a de- 
nomination. He is absorbed in his profession and happy 
in his work, but takes a lively interest in all the ques- 
tions of the day — social, educational, industrial, polit- 
ical, literary and scientific — and does not ignore his duties 
as a man and citizen. He takes a profound interest in 
everything that tends to build up his native State and 
improve the condition of her people. He is a man of 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 35 

reading and good information, independent in his think- 
ing and independent also in expressing his opinions. 
He favors progress and yet he is conservative, not think- 
ing things are necessarily improvements because they 
are novelties, especially so in the world of ideas. He has 
no faith in modern isms, particularly in the fields of the- 
ological and so-called scientific free thought and specula- 
tion. He holds fast to the old-fashioned notions about 
Revelation, Christianity, &c.; does not believe in evolu- 
tion, human perfectibility nor negro suffrage ; is devoted 
to human liberty and democratic government, and op- 
posed to the one-man power, but fears radical notions 
about allowing all men and women to vote, without qual- 
ification. He will open Pandora's box after awhile. 



Ho^. DANIEL G. FOWLE, 

OF RALEIGH, 

Was born in the town of Washington, in Beaufort 
county, North Carolina, on the 3d of March, 1831. At 
the age of fourteen he was entered at the school of North 
Carolina's most celebrated teacher William Bingham, 
where he remained until he matriculated at Princeton, 
New Jersey, at the age of sixteen. While at Princeton 
he was appointed by the literary society of which he was 
a member, junior orator, and acquitted himself so well as 
to call forth a complimentary and particular mention by 
one of the leading New York dailies. The Honorable 
Barnes Compton, now a member of Congress from Mary- 
land, was at the same time a junior orator appointed by 
another of the literary societies. 

In 1851, .he graduated at Princeton, and having studied 
law under Judge Pearson for two years, was admitted to 
the bar in 1853, and in 1854 settled in Raleigh. In 1856 



36 SKETCHES OF 

he married Ellen Brent, daughter of Hon. R. M. Pear- 
son, who died in 1862, leaving two children, Margaret, 
now wife of P. H. Andrews, and Martha, wife of David 
B. Avera, of Raleigh. 

On the surrender of Fort Sumter and the proclama- 
tion of Lincoln calling for troops to coerce the seceding 
States, he volunteered as a private in a company known 
as the Raleigh Rifles, and upon the organization of the 
company was elected second Lieutenant. Upon the 
organization of the State military department he was 
appointed Major of the commissary department. In the 
summer of 1861 he resigned his commission, helped to 
raise the regiment afterwards known as the 31st, was 
made captain of one of its companies, then Lieutenant- 
Colonel of the regiment, and as such served at Fort Hill, 
in Beaufort county, and at Roanoke Island, where he was 
captured by Burnside's forces, February 8th, 1862, and 
after a short imprisonment, paroled. In October, 1862, 
he was elected to the House of Commons from Wake 
county, and upon the adjournment of the Legislature 
was appointed Adjutant General of North Carolina with 
the rank of Major General. In the fall of 1863 he 
resigned this commission. In 1864 he ran for the House 
of Commons from Wake on the anti-Holden ticket and 
was the only one on this ticket who was elected. In 
1865, during his absence from home, he was appointed 
Judge of the Superior Court by Governor Holden, and 
was by the Leg;islature of 1865-'66 elected to the same 
office for life. In November, 1867, he resigned this office 
rather than obey and enforce the orders of General 
Sickles, then Military Governor of North and South 
Carolina. He was a Democratic candidate for the con- 
vention of 1867 and was defeated, but led his ticket by 
over a hundred votes. In 1868 he was chairman of the 
State Democratic Committee and threw his whole energy 
into that campaign. In 1870 he was one of .the Demo- 
cratic candidates for the State Senate from the counties 
of Franklin and Wake, reduced the Republican majority 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 37 

of twelve hundred to two hundred and again led bis 
ticket. In 1876 he was Democratic elector for the State- 
at-large and upon the election of Tilden, so conspicuous 
and pre-eminent had been his canvass, that the members 
of the North Carolina Electoral College recommended 
him to the President and requested that he be appointed 
Attorney-General of the United States. In 1880 he was 
a candidate for the Democratic nouiination for Governor, 
was defeated by Hon. Thos. J. .larvis, and during that 
campaign thoroughly canvassed the State for his late 
competitor, making some sixty speeches in different parts 
of the State, from the mountains to the sea. In 1872 he 
canvassed Chatham and made speeches in other counties 
of the State in behalf of the Democratic candidate for 
Governor. In 1878 he assisted Hon. W. H. Kitchin in 
his canvass for Congress, making speeches in Scotland 
Neck, Wilson, Goldsboro and New Berne, In 1884 he 
was a candidate for the nomination for Congress, was 
defeated by Hon. W. R Cox, but during that campaign 
his eloquent voice was heard in forty or fifty counties of 
the State pleading for the glorious principles of the Demo- 
cratic party. During the session of the Legislature of 
1884-'85 all the Democratic members of that body united 
in a petition to President Cleveland requesting him to 
appoint Judge Fowle Solicitor General. 

We failed to mention in its chronological order, that 
in January, 1866, he married Mary E., only daughter of 
Dr. F. J. Haywood, of Raleigh, who died in April, 1886, 
leaving now surviving her three little children. From 
his early manhood in 1861 up to the present time, Daniel 
G. Fowle has ever been a constant, earnest, able and 
effective advocate of civil liberty, good government and 
that greatest of all blessings, the Constitution as under- 
stood and defined by that grand old Roman, Thomas 
Jefferson. His moral character is without blemish. As 
a soldier, he was true to his flag, as a legislator he was 
able and conservative, as a lawyer he stands without a 
superior, as a judge he was great and pure, and an orna- 



38 SKETCHES OP 

ment to that bench which had been occupied by such 
men as Caldwell, Manly, Nash, Pearson, Battle, Ruffin 
and Badger, and as a political orator, none can surpass 
him. Well do we remember how in 1876 in a canvass 
of the Stale as a Tilden elector, he stirred the hearts and 
minds of the people as they had never been stirred before. 
Wherever he went he aroused the people to the import- 
ance of the political issues of the day and left behind 
him a determination to win and an enthusiasm for the 
cause of Democracy that had not been seen for years. 
And thus it has been in every political campaign, except 
the one of 1882, when unfortunately for him and the 
Democratic party, his private affairs were in such condi- 
tion as to demand his constant attention. On June 30th, 
1888, was nominated for Governor by the Democratic 
Convention. — Raleigh News and Observer. 



Hon. CHAS. manly STEDMAN, 

OF WILMINGTON, LIEUT. GOVERNOR OF NORTH CAROLINA. 

The subject of this sketch is the son of Nathan A. and 
E. W. Stedman, and was born at Pittsboro, Chatham 
county, January 29th, 1841. At an early age he moved 
with his parents to Fayetteville. He was prepared for 
college by Rev. Daniel McGilvary, now missionary to 
Siam. He entered the State University in 1857 and 
graduated with the highest honors. At the opening of 
the war he entered as private in the 1st N. C. Regiment. 
He was promoted to Captain and afterwards Major of the 
44th N. C. Regiment. He served during the entire war 
in the army of Northern Virginia and was several times 
wounded. 

After the war he studied law and was licensed to prac- 
tice in January, 1866. In January of the same year he 
was married to Miss Kate Wright, of Wilmington, daugh- 
ter of Joshua G. Wright. In 1867 he removed to Wil- 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 39 

mington, where he has ever since practiced with increas- 
ing success and reputation. 

In November, 1884, he was elected Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor of the State. He makes a dignified and graceful 
presiding officer of the Senate and is master of parlia- 
mentary law. 

He is a man of highly cultivated mind and manners. 

He has frequently participated in the political cam- 
paigns of the State and has shown ability as an orator. 
His speeches are argumentative and often thrilling. 



Hon. CURTIS HOOKS BROGDEK 

OF GOLDSBOKO, 

" Was born in Wayne county, N. C, and was raised on 
the farm. He received a common school education, 
studied law, and was admitted to the bar; he presided 
for several years as a Justice of Wayne county Court; he 
was first elected by an almost unanimous vote in his 
native county as a member of the House of Commons in 
1838, before he had ever voted in any civil election, and 
was elected continuously to one or the other Houses of 
the General Assembly until the session of 1856, when he 
was elected as Comptroller of North Carolina. He was 
elected to that office continuously by the General Assem- 
bly for ten years from January 1st, 1857, to January 1st, 
1867. In 1868 he was elected to the State Senate, and 
again in 1870; in 1872 he was elected Lieutenant-Gov- 
,ernor on the Republican ticket, and presided over the 
Senate till 1874, when on the death of Gov. Tod R. Cald- 
well, he succeeded to the Executive office of the State, 
which he held till January, 1877. In 1868 he was elector 
and presided over the Electoral College which cast the 
vote of the State for Grant and Colfax. In 1869 he was 



40 SKETCHES OF 

appointed by President Grant Collector of Internal 
Revenue for the Second District of North Carolina, which 
appointment he declined. He has held the principal 
offices in the State Militia from Captain to Major-General, 
has been trustee of the State University, and has also 
filled several local offices, such as Town Commissioner, 
Railroad Director, &c. In 1876, while Governor of the 
State, he was elected to the Forty-Fifth Congress, receiv- 
ing 21,060 votes against 11,874 cast for Col. Wharton J. 
Green, Democrat. 

Gov. Brogden has not held any office since he retired 
from Congress until the fall of 1886, when he yielded to 
the urgent solicitations of his friends without regard to 
party, and was elected to the House of Representatives 
by a majority of 479 votes. He is largely identified with 
the farming interest, being probably the largest laud- 
owner in Wayne county. He has never married." — 
Legislative Biographical Sketch Booh, 1887. 



Hoi^. BURGESS SIDNEY GAITHER, 

OF BURKE COUNTY, 

Was born in Iredell county, 16th March, 1807. His 
father, Burgess Gaither, came from near Annapolis, Mary- 
land, after the close of the Revolution and located in 
Iredell, where he married Amelia Martin, who came from 
near Richmond, Va. The father of the subject of this 
sketch was a man of prominence in his day and genera- 
tion, having represented Iredell frequently in the Gene-, 
ral Assembly from 1788 to 1802, when the Democracy, 
under the leadership of Thomas Jefferson, came into 
power. 

Burgess S. Gaither's early education was obtained at 
Hall's High School, Bethany church, Iredell county, and 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 41 

subsequently at the Morgantou High School, where he 
was prepared for college. He then took an irregular 
course at the University of Georgia, and returned to Mor- 
gantou to study law under the instruction of his brother, 
Alfred Moore Gaither. Upon the death of his brother 
he completed his studies with the late Judge David F. 
Caldwell, of Salisbury. He obtained his County Court 
license June Term, 1829, and Superior Court license the 
following year. 

On the loth July, 1830, he married Elizabeth S., 
daughter of Col. W. W. Erwin,of Burke. Upon getting 
bis license as an Attorney-at-Law, he at once entered 
upon the practice of his profession which, with slight 
interruptions, he has continued to this day. 

The first office he ever held was that of Clerk of Burke 
Superior Court, to which he was appointed by Hon. W. 
P. Mangum. Shortly after that the law of 1832 was 
passed, giving to the people the election of Clerks. Col. 
Gaither submitted his ''claims" to the people and was 
elected by a large majority for four years. 

In 1835 he was elected with Hon. Samuel P. Carson, a 
delegate to represent Burke in the State Convention to 
amend the Constitution. The journals and debates of 
that body will show his record. 

In 1839 the first National Convention of the Whig 
party was held at Harrisburg, Pa. Col. Gaither was the 
delegate from this district. Governor Owen was chair- 
man of the North Carolina delegation, and upon the first 
ballot Henry Ciay received 80 votes, General Harrison 
70 votes and General Winfield Scott 16 votes, from New 
York. No one having a majority, the balloting was con- 
tinued, with the same result for two days, when New 
York's 16 votes were thrown to the weaker candidate and 
Harrison nominated, and afterwards elected by the people. 
This was a sore disappointment to Mr. Clay's friends and 
to none more so than to Col. Gaither, and, indeed, the 
whole North Carolina delegation. 

In July, 1841, President John Tyler appointed Col. 



42 SKETCHES OF 

Gaither Superintendent of the Mint, at Charlotte, which 
position he held for two years and then gave way to 
Green W. Caldwell, who was more of a Tyler man than 
Gaither. Closing up his accounts promptly with the 
Government, Col. Gaither turned over the Mint to Cald- 
well and resumed active practice of the law. Subse- 
quently to this the discovery of gold in California made 
it expedient to establish a mint at San Francisco, and 
Mr. Fillmore, being then President of the United States, 
tendered the appointment of Superintendent of this new 
institution to Col. Gaither, but he declined to accept, for 
the reason he was unwilling to leave North Carolina. 

He represented Burke and Yancey in the Senate of 1840 
and was the Senator from Burke, Caldwell and McDowell 
in 1844, when the Senate was equally divided between 
the Whigs and Democrats. A week of fruitless ballot- 
ing for a presiding officer ended by an agreement that 
B. S. Gaither, of Burke, (who had not before been men- 
tioned for the position) should be declared President of 
the Senate. He gave universal satisfaction. During 
this session he was elected Solicitor of the 7th Judicial 
Circuit for four years, and in 1848 was re-elected for a 
second term of four years. Eminent judges have said 
that he was the ablest prosecuting attorney who had ever 
appeared before them. 

Col. Gaither represented this district both terms of the 
Confederate Congress and was distinguished for his manly 
bearing during all that perilous period. Since then he 
has taken little part in public affairs except to advise the 
younger generation. 

It can truly be said of him that he was an able lawyer, 
a faithful representative, a gallant, chivalrous gentleman 
whom no danger could appall and no menace could 
intimidate. T. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 43 

Hoix. JOHN S. HENDERSON, 

OF SALISBURY. 

The subject of this. sketch has been a marked success 
as a representative in Congress, considering the short 
time he has served. 

Mr. Henderson is an earnest worker, not a talker. He 
has won favor with Randall and other men of influence, 
and he has labored hard on the committees to advance 
the measures he advocates. Two of his speeches made 
in the last Congress attracted considerable attention and 
favorable comment, one in favor of Frank Hurd, the 
other in support of his bill to modify the Internal Reve- 
nue Laws, &c. His earnest effort in behalf of the latter 
reflects great credit on him. 

Whetlier we agree with his measures or not, we cer- 
tainly feel gratified to see a man in earnest, and working 
diligently for the success of his bills. He was born in 
Rowan county, January 6th, 1846. He was prepared for 
college at Dr. Wilson's school, and entered the University 
of North Carolina January, 1862, where he pursued 
his studies until November, 1864, when he enteied the 
Confederate army and served until the surrender as a 
private in Company B, 10th Regiment N. C. State troops. 
He read law under Chief Justice Pearson, and obtained 
his County Court license in June, 1866, and his Superior 
Court license in June, 1867. He applied himself zeal- 
ously to the practice of his profession, in which he has 
been successful. He has always resided in Salisbury. In 
September, 1874, he married Miss Bessie B. Cain,of Ashe- 
ville. He has never sought office, but has seen a good 
deal of political life. In 1871 he was elected to the pro- 
posed Constitutional Convention, beating his late com- 
petitor. Dr. J. G. Ramsay, 497 votes, running 102 votes 
ahead of the Democratic ticket. Mr. Henderson declined 
a nomination for the lower house of the General Assem- 



44 SKETCHES OF 

bly in 1872. He was elected to the Constitutional Con- 
vention of 1875, and took a prominent part in the pro- 
ceedings of that memorable body. In 1876 he was elected 
to the JEouse, and was a leading and valuable member, 
having been the author and draftsman of many of the most 
important statutes adopted at that session of the General 
Assembly. He had been elected by a majority of 1,006, 
when Vance's majority in Rowan was 862 and Tilden's 
868. In 1879 he was triumphantly elected to the State 
Senate from Rowan and Davie, running about 475 votes 
ahead of his ticket. In the upper chamber, as well as in 
the lower, he distinguished himself by his sagacity, his 
industry and zeal, as a true representative of the people, 
and did much towards shaping the best legislation of the 
session. In 1881 he was selected by the General Assembly 
as one of the three commissioners to codify the statute 
laws of the State, and in this capacity rendered conspic- 
uous service. 

On the 9Lh of September, 1884, he was nominated for 
Congress, by the Democratic convention of the 7th dis- 
trict, and was opposed by his old competitor. Dr. J. G. 
Ramsay, one of the shrewdest and best posted politicians 
in the State. 

Mr. Henderson was elected by over 3,000 majority. He 
was re-elected in 1886. 



Hon. W. H. H. COWLES, 

OF WILKESBORO, 

Was born at Hamptonville, N. C, April 22d, 1840. 
His youth was spent partly on the farm and in his father's 
store. He attended the common schools and academies 
of his county. He was fond of outdoor exercise ; delighted 
in hunting, which developed and hardened his constitu- 
tion. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 45 

In 1861 he volunteered as a private in a cavalry com- 
pany then being formed by T. N. Grumpier, but upon 
the organization of the company he was elected First 
Lieutenant. The company was selected with great care; 
every member was strong and soldierly. 

Col. Cowles was then not quite six feet in height, slen- 
der, erect and athletic. In the latter part of 1861 he 
marched with his regiment to Centerville, then the seat 
of war, at which point the First N. C. Cavalry became a 
part of the First Cavalry Brigade arganized in the Con- 
federate States, and was connected with the army of 
Northern Virginia until the surrender. Col. Cowles 
served with his regiment during the war filling the grades 
of First Lieutenant of Company A, Major and then 
Colonel. His active and faithful discharge of duty and 
his dash and courage won the confidence of his superior 
officers and as early as the First Maryland raid he was 
placed in command of the extreme advance guard of 
the Cavalry by Stewart. On return he was placed in 
command of the extreme rear guard. 

In all the raids, marches and battles that followed, he 
bore his part bravely. His men were devoted to him 
and in the critical periods of battle the sound of his 
clarion voice never failed tp rally them. At Auburn 
where the lamented Col. Thomas Ruffin fell, it was Cowles 
who rallied the men and continued the charge. At 
Brand}^ Station it was Col. Cowles who led the charge 
that drove the 10th N. Y. Cavalry out of line and to the 
rear. (Jovvles followed them up for several miles towards 
Kelly's Ford, capturing Maj. Forbes, Maj. Gregg's com- 
missary and Wm. Buckly, private correspondent of the 
Neiu York Herald and others, whom he successfully brought 
out, though at the terminus of the charge he was com- 
pletely in the enemy's lines. In the beginning of the 
charge, Preston Hampton, the son of Wade Hampton, 
joined Cowles for a short distance but his horse was killed 
under him and when he had obtained another horse, he 
found that his squadron had passed ahead and that Gregg's 



46 SKETCHES OF 

entire column was moving down the road in the direc- 
tion that Cowles had just gone. As Hampton could not 
rejoin his squadron, he returned to the Confederate lines 
and reported that Cowles was surely captured. When 
Cowles attempted to retrace his steps he was met hy a 
Confederate coming at full speed with the news that a 
large body of Federal Cavalry were in the road a short 
distance off, coming in that direction ordering the fences 
to be torn down. Cowles passed with his men and pris- 
oners through the field and across a deep stream where 
there was no ford ; but he crossed successfully and just 
in time to witness the advance of the head of General 
Gregg's column at the point in the road which Cowles 
had left. At the beginning of the battle of Mine Run 
General Ewell was in need of a competent officer to take 
command of the skirmish line in his front and requested 
General Stew^art to suggest the man. General Stewart 
detailed Capt. Cowles for the duty and directed him to 
take in addition to the Cavalry he would find with Gen- 
eral Ewell, one hundred picked men, which he did, 
quickly joining General Early. He went to the front 
and established his skirmish line and next morning met 
the enemy's advance gallantly checking its movements 
every inch of the way to the Confederate's main lines. 
In this engagement fie received his first wound by a 
minnie ball through the body. His wound was thought 
to be fatal, but the following Spring he rejoined his com- 
mand in time to take part in the first of that memorable 
campaign of 1864 and was in command of the right 
wing of General Gordon's forces at Brook church near 
Richmond where Gordon fell. He continued in active 
service until the 31st of March, 1865, when, in leading 
a desperate assault on the right of the enemy near Peters- 
burg, and after his horse was shot leaving him on foot 
and knee deep in water, he was shot in the head. Those 
who saw him thought he was killed and he was left un- 
conscious to fall into the hands of the enemy. He was 
taken to the hospital where he heard the news of the 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 47 

surrender of Lee. It happened that he met there his 
namesake, Maj. Cowles, of the Federal army, who prom- 
ised him the best treatment and who allowed Col. Cowles 
and a number of his friends to go home on parole. Col. 
Cowles took the boat for Norfolk under guard. At Nor- 
folk he was imprisoned for a day, then left for New Berne. 
He was badly treated on the vessel and he came near 
being thrown overboard. At New Berne by the aid of a 
friend he managed to get across tlie Federal lines. He 
went to Raleigh, thence to Salisbury with Thad. Coleman. 
They reached Third Creek in a private conveyance and 
attempted to walk the rest of the way to Statesville, but 
it was too much for men who apparently were nearer 
their graves than their homes. Wlien within three miles 
of Statesville, Col. Cowles offered a farmer $3.00 in green- 
back and $20.00 in Confederate money to take them to 
Statesville, and after much persuasion prevailed upon 
the farmer to comply. Cowles finally reached Wilkes- 
boro. 

In 1866 he began the study of law under Judge Pear- 
son and obtained license to practice in the county court 
in 1867, in the Superior Court in 1868. He located at 
Wilkesboro where he has since practiced his pro- 
fession. He has been a strong Democrat since the war. 
He was Reading Clerk of the Senate from 1872 to 1874. 
In 1874 he was elected Solicitor of the 10th Judicial Dis- 
trict, in which position he won the reputation of a vigor- 
ous prosecutor. He was for many years chairman of the 
Democratic Executive Committee of his district and did 
much service for his party. 

In 1884 he was elected to Congress from the 8th Dis- 
trict by a large majority. He was re-elected in 1886 
after a brilliant canvass, in which he drove his opponent 
from the field. 



48 SKETCHES OP 

Hon. WILLIAM RUFFIN COX, 

OF RALEIGH, 

Was born in Scotland Neck, North Carolina; here- 
moved to Tennessee, and after due preparation entered 
Franklin College, near Nashville, where he graduated; 
subsequently he became a student at the Lebanon Law 
School, and, after receiving his degree of Bachelor of 
Laws, practiced his profession in Nasliville, Tennessee; 
prior to the war he returned to his native State ; engaged 
in planting in Edgecombe county, and is still occupied 
in the same pursuit; early in the war he entered the Con- 
federate States Army as Major of the Second North Caro- 
lina State Troops; by successive promotion became Brig- 
adier-General, and commanded his division in the last 
charge at Appomattox; after the termination of hostili- 
ties, he resumed the practice of the law at Raleigh ; was 
elected Solicitor of the Metropolitan District, and held 
the office for six years ; subsequently he was appointed^ 
a Judge of the Superior Court for the same district, and 
held the office until near the expiration of his term, when 
he resigned to canvass for a nomination to Congress; he 
is a Trustee of the University of the South; was a Dele- 
gate from the State at large to the National Democratic 
Convention which met in New York ; was similarly dele- - 
gated to the Saint Louis Democratic Convention, but de- 
clined the honor, and was for several years Chairman of 
the State Democratic Committee; was elected to the 
Forty-seventh and to the Forty-eighth Congresses, and 
was re-elected to the Forty-ninth Congress as a Democrat, 
receiving 18,930 votes against 13,448 votes for Turner, 
Republican. — Congressional Directory. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 49 

Hon. RISDEN T. BENNETT, 

OP WADESBOROUGH, 

Was born in Anson county, North Carolina, June 18, 
1840; was educated at Anson Institute; took the degree 
of Bachelor of Laws at Lebanon Law School, Tennessee, 
in June, 1859 ; entered the Confederate Army as a pri- 
vate April 30, 1861, and rose through the several grades 
to the Colonelcy of the Fourteenth North Carolina 
Troops; was Solicitor of Anson county in 1866 and 1867; 
was a member of the Legislature of North Carolina in 
1872, and delegnte to the Constitutional Convention of 
the State in 1875, serving in each body as Chairman 
of the Judiciary Committee; was Judge of the Superior 
Court in 1880, and resigned to accept the nomination for 
Congress as Congressman at Large from North Carolina; 
was elected to the Forty-eighth Congress, and was re- 
elected to the Forty-ninth Congress, as a Democrat, re- 
ceiving 19,344 votes against 14,010 votes for Dockery,. 
Republican . — Congressional Directory. 



Hon. WHARTOI^ J. GEEEN, 

OF FAYETTEVILLE, 

Was born near Saint Mark's, Florida, where his father 
had lately moved from Warren county. North Carolina; 
upon his mother's death, which occurred when he was 
four years old, he was placed in charge of an uncle, whilst 
his father was engaged in the struggle for Texan inde- 
pendence, and shortly after with his grandfather in 
Warren county; was partially educated at Georgetown 
College, Lovejoy's Academy at Raleigh, West Point, and 

4 



50 SKETCHES OF 

the University of Virginia; read law at the last, and af- 
terwards at Cumberland University; immediately after 
obtaining a United States Supreme Court license he 
abandoned the law, and has been ever since a farmer, 
and also a vineyardist at this time; enlisted in one of 
the three first companies that went into camp upon the 
breaking out of the war; was promoted to Lieutenant- 
Colonel commanding Second North Carolina Battalion 
in the Confederate Army, and was afterwards on General 
Daniel's staff; was a delegate to the Democratic National 
Convention in 1868; was a State delegate to the Demo- 
cratic National Convention at Saint Louis; was State 
Alternate to the Cincinnati National Democratic Con- 
vention, and was a candidate for Elector on the Demo- 
cratic ticket of 1868; has never held civic position until 
elected to the Forty-eighth Congress ; he was re-elected 
to the Fofty-ninth Congress as a Democrat, receiving^, 
16,785 votes against 12,252 votes for Brogden, Republi- 
can. — Congressional Directory. 



Hon. THOMAS DILLAKD JOHNSTON, 

OF ASHEVILLE, 

Was born in '|Waynesville, Haywood county, North 
Carolina, April 1, 1840 ; was educated at common schools 
until 1853, when he was placed under the tuition of Col. 
Stephen Lee, near Asheville, and was by him prepared 
for college; in the winter of 1858-'59 entered the sopho- 
more class at the University of North Carolina at Chapel 
Hill, but left college in the spring of ^59 on account of 
failing health ; studied law with Judge Bailey in 1860; 
entered the Southern Army in the spring of 1861, and 
received three desperate wounds at Malvern Hill, from 
which he came near losing his life, they still causing 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 51 

him suffering; was licensed to practice law in 1866 by 
the Supreme Court of North Carolina; was elected mayor 
of Asheville in 1869 — the first Democratic mayor after 
the war; was elected in 1870 to the lower house of the 
Legislature of North Carolina and was designated by the 
House as one of the managers of the impeachment of 
Governor W. W. Holden ; was a candidate for Demo- 
cratic Elector on the Greeley ticket in 1872; was re- 
elected to the State Legislature in 1872, but declined a 
third election in 1874; was elected to the State Senate 
from the Buncombe district in 1876; and was elected to 
the Forty-ninth Congress as a Democrat, receiving 13,024 
votes against 11,466 votes for H. G. Ewart, Republican. 
Re-elected. — Congressional Directory. 



y 



Hoi^. T. G. SKINNER, 

OF HERTFORD, 

Son of James C. and Elmira Skinner, was born Janu- 
ary 21st, 1842, in Perquimans county, on a farm. His 
mother died when he was twelve years. old. He went to 
school first at the Hertford Academy, then at Sunsbury, 
Gates county, to Martin Kellogg. He also studied at Ox- 
ford under Jas. H. Horner, who prepared him for college. 
He entered the freshman class at Chapel Hill in 1858. In 
May, 1861, while in the junior class, he volunteered in 
the Orange Light Infantry under Captain Ashe, and with 
that company joined the First Regiment of N. C. Volun- 
teers under General (then Colonel) D. H. Hill. The title 
of his company was " D." He remained with that regi- 
ment until it disbanded in the fall of '61, and was en- 
gaged in the battle of Big Bethel. 

In the spring of 1862 he acted as vidette for the 13th 
Virginia Cavalry, who were stationed at Suffolk, Va. 



52 SKETCHES OF 

After the fall of Norfolk, he went to Richmond with a 
few picked volunteers and joined a battery of artillery 
under Captain !S. Taylor Martin, and while in that com- 
pany was elected and served as Lieutenant. 

In 1863 he resigned that position and was transferred 
to a North Carolina battery of artillery under the com- 
mand of Captain Webb, of Richmond county, N. C, until 
the end of the war, as sergeant. 

When the war closed he returned home and went to 
work farming and tishing. In 1868 he obtained license 
to practice law from the Supreme Court, and practiced 
his profession until elected to Congress in the fall of 1883 . 
He served two terms in Congress with credit to his con- 
stituents. 



Hon. ALFRED ROWLAND, t 

OF LUMBERTON, 

Was born in Lumberton, Robeson county, North Caro- 
lina, February 9, 1844; received a common school edu- 
cation ; entered the Confederate Army in May, 1861, and 
served as a Lieutenant in Company D, Eighteenth Regi- 
ment of North Carolina State Troops, till May 12, 1864; 
on that day was captured in battle of Spottsylvania 
Court House, and was afterwards imprisoned at Fort 
Delaware till June, 1865; after the war studied law under 
the late Giles Leitch, of Robeson county ; obtained County 
Court license in January, 1867, and Superior Court li- 
cense in January, 1868; in 1867 was elected by the 
County Court Register of Deeds for Robeson County; was 
a member of the General Assembly of North Carolina 
1876-77, and again in 1880-81; was a Cleveland and 
Hendricks Elector for the Sixth Congressional District 
in 1884, and was elected to the Fiftieth Congress as a 
Democrat, receiving 14,261 votes against 6,659 votes for 
Charles R. Jones, Independent. — Congressional Directory. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 53 

Hon. LOUIS CHAELES LATHAM, 

OF GREENVILLE, 

Was born at Plymouth, North Carolina, September 
11th, 1840; graduated at the University of North Caro- 
lina in 1859, and then attended the Law School at Har- 
vard College, Massachusetts; practices law ; entered the 
Confederate service in May or June, 1861, for the war, 
and was successively Captain and Major of the 1st North 
Carolina State troops; was elected to the House of Com- 
mons /of North Carolina in 1864; surrendered at Appo- 
mattox; elected to the Senate of North Carolina in 1870; 
was elected to the Forty -seventh Congress, and was elected 
to the Fiftieth Congress as a Democrat, receiving 13,490 
votes against 10,635 votes for L. J. Barrett, Independent. — 
Congressional Directory. 



Hoi^. F. M. SIMMONS, \ 

OF NEW BERNE, 

Was born in Jones county. North Carolina, January 
20th, 1854; was graduated at Trinity College in North 
Carolina in 1873; studied law, and was admitted to the 
bar in November, 1874; in 1876 removed to New Berne, 
North Carolina, where he has since resided and practiced 
his profession; never heldany office until he was elected 
to the Fiftieth Congress as a Democrat, receiving 15,158 
votes against 13,060 votes for James E. O'Hara, Republi- 
can, the colored member of the Forty-ninth Congress 
from this district. — Congressional Directory. 



54 SKETCHES OF 

Ho]^. CHARLES W. McCLAMMY, 

OF scott's hill, 

Was bom in Scott's Hill, North Carolina, May 29th, 
1839; received an academic education, and was gradu- 
ated from the University of North Carolina in 1859; was 
engaged in teaching; entered the Confederate army in 
1861 ; by successive promotions became Major of the 
Third North Carolina Cavalry Regiment, and surren- 
dered at Appomattox; is a farmer; was elected a mem- 
ber of the House of Commons of North Carolina in 
1866, and to the State Senate in 1871 ; was Democratic 
Elector in 1884, and was elected to the Fiftieth Congress 
as a Democrat, receiving 14,538 votes against 8,166 votes 
for F. D. Koonce, Republican, and 100 votes scattered. — 
Congressional Directory. 



Hon. JOHN NICHOLS, 

OF RALEIGH, 

Was born in Wake county, North Carolina, November 
14th, 1834; received a common school education; when 
fifteen years of age was apprenticed to the printing busi- 
ness, receiving a full term of six years; when twenty-one 
years of age attended Lovejoy Academy for one year; for 
a number of years was engaged in the book and job 
printing business and newspaper publishing; from 1873 
till 1877 was principal of the North Carolina Institution 
for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind; from 1879 till 
1881 was Revenue Stamp Agent at Durham, North Caro- 
lina; in May, 1881, was, without application, appointed 
Postmaster at Raleigh, North Carolina, and was removed 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 55 

by President Cleveland in May, 1885; has been the Sec- 
retary and Treasurer of the State Fair Association for a 
number of years, and was elected to the Fiftieth Con- 
gress as an Independent, receiving 15,861 votes against 
14,473 votes for John W. Graham, Democrat. — Congres- 
sional Directory. 



Ro^. JAMES E. O'HARA, 

OF ENFIELD. 

Was born in New York, February 26th, 1844 ; received 
an academical education; studied law; was admitted to 
the bar of North Carolina in June, 1873; at present a 
practising attorney; was Engrossing Clerk to the Con- 
stitutional Convention of Nortli Carolina in 1808, also to 
the Legislature of 1868-'69; was a member of the State 
Constitutional Convention of 1875; was Chairman of 
the Board of Commissioners for the county of Halifax, 
1872-76; was elected to the Forty-sixth Congress, but 
the certificate of election was given to W. H. Kilchin, 
Democrat; was elected to the Forty-eighth Congress, and 
was re-elected to the Forty-ninth Congress as a Repub- 
lican, receiving 22,309 votes against 15,699 votes for 
Woodard, Democrat. — Congressional Directory. 



56 SKETCHES OF 

Hon. O. H. DOCKEEY, 
the republican nominee for governor of n. 0. 

Mr. Dockery was born in Richmond county, N. C, 
August r2tli, 1830. He is a son of the Hon. Alfred 
Dookery, ex-member of Congress, who was a man of 
influence and prominent in State affairs for thirty or 
more years. Young Dockery received a good education, 
graduating from the North Carolina University at Chapel 
Hill, in the class of 1844. He read law and was admit- 
ted to the bar, but never practiced, preferring the inde- 
pendent life of a planter to the pursuit of a profession. 

Becoming interested in politics, he was elected to the 
Lower House of the Legislature, representing his native 
county of Richmond in the session of 1858-'59. In 
1860 he was the Bell and Everett District Elector. Dur- 
ing the late war he was in the Confederate army for a 
short time, but afterwards abandoned the service, and 
with Governor William Holdeti, advocated the submis- 
sion of the State to the Federal authority; taking an 
active part in the peace movement in 1864. Upon North 
Carolina being rehabilitated in the Union, Mr. Dockery 
was elected a representative to the Fortieth Congress, 
serving from July 13th, 1868, to March 3d, 187L He 
was re-elected to the Forty-first Congress, receiving 15,- 
314 votes, against 13,353 cast f.r McKay, Democrat. 
While in Congress he served on the Commiliee on Revo- 
lutionary Claims and the Committee on Claims; he 
advocated Federal payment for all private materials and 
substance taken by the Quartermaster's Department from 
non-combatants for the use of the armies of the United 
States. As Chairman of the Committee on Freedmen's 
Affairs he favored and advocated public schools and 
everything that might in any way tend to the enlighten- 
ment of the colored race under the new order of things 
and at the same time promote a better feeling and under- 
standing between the two rsices.-- Frank Leslie's Illustrated 
Newspaper. 



• PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 57 

Hon. a. LEAZAR, ^ 

OF IREDELL COUNTY, 

Was born in Rowan county, near the Iredell line, in a 
farm house, the 27th of March, 1843. His parents were 
Jno. Leazar and Isabella Leazar; on the paternal side 
of Gernaan descent, on the maternal side of Scotch-Irish 
descent. At the age of thirteen he entered the Fresh- 
man class of Davidson College, having been prepared by 
J. R. McAulay in the vicinity of Prospect church. He 
graduated in 1860 first in a class of twenty. The war 
immediately coming on, he enlisted in Company G, 42d 
Regiment N. C. State Troops, and was elected First Lieu- 
tenant in the same. He passed through some severe 
engagements but never suffered a wound nor capture. 
At the close of the war he engaged in teaching, though 
not choosing that as a profession, but meeting with suc- 
cess he continued that business, conducting a classical 
school for sixteen years within five miles of his present 
home. In 1869 the degree of A. B. was conferred on 
him by Davidson College. 

He was married in 1865 to Miss Cornelia Frances 
McCorkle, daughter of Wm. B. and Mary McCorkle, then 
of Rowan, but formerly of Wadesboro, Anson county. 
His wife died in 1873. 

In 1882 he was elected to the General Assembly against 
D. M. Furches. His principal work in that body was in 
furtherance of the educational enterprises of the State. 
He was elected by the Assembly a member of the re-or- 
ganized Board of Agriculture for the 7th Congressional 
District. He has been a farmer for the last twenty years. 
He taugjht in the State Normal School in 1888 and 1884. 

In 1884 he was re-elected to the House of Representa- 
tives and his influence in that body was extensive from 
the beginning. He interested himself considerably in 
the important question of rearranging the Judicial sys- 



68 SKETCHES OF 

tern in the State. The House Committee being all law- 
yers except Mr. Leazar, favored a large increase in the 
number of Judges. Mr. Leazar opposed the increase and 
was successful. He drafted the bill whicli became a law 
increasing the appropriation for the Slate University 
$15,000, and the number of the Faculty, six. Mr. 
Leazar strongly opposed convict labor on railroads, etc., 
holding that the railroads being the property of individ- 
uals and not in any. degree of the State, it was wrong in 
itself as well as unconstitutional for the State to appro- 
priate money or labor, its equivalent, for their construc- 
tion or improvement. 

In 1885 he was tendered Chief of Division in the 
Treasury Department at Washington, but which he de- 
clined. Tlie salary was tempting, but the idea of being 
pigeon-holed or converted into a mere machine was not 
altogether so pleasing. 

In 1886 he was elected to the House, serving as chair- 
maii on Education. He hel|)ed to develop the Industrial 
School enterprise, by a bill which he had drafted and passed 
through the House of '85, a bill to assign the S7,500 
income of the Land Scrip Fund heretofore enjoyed by 
the University, to the "North Carolina College of Agri- 
culture and Mechanic Arts." 

The State's policy in regard to the management of con- 
victs is a hard one to solve, but much credit is due Mr. 
Leazar for his bold stand against the lobbyist and the 
extravagant legislators who would surrender to railroads 
without compensation any number of convicts. 

In the summer of '87 he delivered the annual address 
at the semi-centennial commencement of Davidson Col- 
lege. 

He is a Trustee of Davidson College and also of the 
University. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 59 

Hon. DAVID A. COVINGTON, 

OF MONROE, 

Was born December 2d, 1853. He is the third son of 
D. A. and S. A. Covington. His father was a native of 
Richmond county, and belonged to a well known and 
honored family. Though never having the advantages 
of a collegiate education, he was a man of fine mind, and 
was held in high esteem both in his native county and 
in Union, the county of his adoption. 

He represented Union and Anson counties in the State 
Senate for a number of years, and held various ofiSces of 
trust in the county first named. He was a man of fine 
business qualities, and amassed a large fortune prior to 
the war. He died at the age of sixty, leaving a widow 
and six children, all of whom are still living. 

The subject of this sketch received such early educa- 
tion as is usually aff'orded in small country towns, and 
in 1870, at the age of seventeen, was sent to Wake Forest 
College. Three years of his life were spent at this insti- 
tution. He left college in June, 1873, lacking one year 
of graduation. While at Wake Forest he represented 
the Euzelian Society, of which he was a member, as its 
first debater at the Anniversar3^ in 1873, and was elected 
to deliver the Anniversary Oration of that Society in 
1874, but failed to return to college the succeeding year. 

In December, 1873, he was married to Miss Ella E. 
Howie, of Monroe, who died the following August. In 
the fall of 1874 he began the stud}^ of law under the late 
Chief Justice Pearson, and graduated the following year, 
receiving his diploma at the June Term, 1875, of the Su- 
preme Court. He immediately entered upon the prac- 
tice of his profession in the town of his nativity, and 
shortly after formed a local partnership with the late J. 
Harvey Wilson, of Charlotte. 

In May, 1876, he was elected Mayor of Monroe over 



60 SKETCHES OF 

several competitors, receiving more votes than all the 
others combined. This office he resigned before the ex- 
piration of his term on account of the conflicting duties 
of his profession. 

On the 23d day of January, 1878, he was married to 
Miss Mary A. Simmons, third daughter of W. G. Sim- 
mons, LL. D., of Wake Forest College. In the summer 
of 1878 he was nominated by the Democratic party at a 
primary election in his county to represent Union county 
in the lower branch of the General Assembly, defeating 
three other candidates. At the general election of this 
year he was elected over an independent by a majority 
of 1,375 votes, his competitor receiving only 292, the 
handsomest majority ever given in his native county — 
Union. 

In the Legislature of 1879, and at the special session of 
1880, he served on the Judiciary and other important 
Committees, and was frequently called to the Chair by 
the Speaker to preside over the deliberations of the 
House. 

In 1880 he was not a candidate for re-election to the 
Legislature, but accepted the nomination of the Demo- 
cratic party as Presidential Elector on the Hancock and 
English ticket as successor to Colonel Bennett, who had 
been promoted to the Bench. 

In the summer of 1886 his name was frequently men- 
tioned in connection with nomination for Congress from 
the Sixth District on the Democratic ticket, and as the suc- 
cessor of Judge Bennett; and in Wadesboro, on the 21st 
of July of that year, he received the largest vote of any 
other man until the 47th ballot, when Col. A. Rowland 
was nominated. 

He is now practicing his profession in Monroe, N. C, 
and is the senior member of the firm of Covington & 
Adams — a firm which does, perhaps, the most extensive 
business in Union county, and which is often employed 
in important litigation away from home. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 61 

Ho^^ J. J. MOTT, 

OF STATESVILLE. 

The subject of this sketch is the son of Rev. T. S. W. 
Mott, a minister of the Episcopal church, well known 
and highly esteemed during his life. He was born in 
Hillsboro, N. C, at the residence of his grandfather, 
James Phillips, the 7th of May, 1834. He was educated 
principally by his father at his home in Caldwell county. 
His medical education was received at Jefferson Medical 
College, of Phihidelphia. He began the practice of 
medicine in Catawba county in 1855 and continued it 
for nearly twelve years. In ihe meantime he was mar- 
ried to Miss Caroline Hen(]rix, of AVilkes county. He 
was in the State Legislature from Catawba county in 
1866-'67. He was President of the Western North Caro- 
lina Railroad from 1868 until 1872. He was Collector 
of Internal Revenue for the 6th N. C. District from 
1872 until 1881. He was a member of the Republican 
party at its organization in this State and has been 
prominent in his party up to the present time. Dr. Mott 
did not engage in the war; he was a strong Whig, 
despised secession and the Confederate Government. He 
is condemned by many people on account of his politics 
and conduct respecting the war. Without expressing 
any opinion it would seem only fair to give the public 
the motives which influenced him. 

The Whig party in this State was for the Union. 
Besides being a member of it Dr. Mott had had, anterior 
to the war, some bitter experiences in opposing Deuiio- 
crats, which further enhanced his antipathy to secession 
and the Confederate Government. He fought secession 
bitterly and his last speech against it was in reply to a 
gentleman from South Carolina who had come across the 
line to drive people from their moorings. He acted for 
the right as he understood and felt it. In 1860 he took 



62 SKETCHES OF 

the view that the Union was an indissoluble compact 
and that not his State but the United States was his 
home, his country and his government. His zeal for the 
Union he considered no less an impulse of patriotism 
than a Southerner's zeal for the Confederacy. 

Dr. Mott's father was in sympathy with the Confed- 
eracy and his brothers volunteered at the beginning of 
the war. Dr. Mott was moved by this and the martial 
spirit of the hour, and would have entered the army but 
for an accident he could not control. The delay brought 
around the old considerations and animosities and he 
stayed out through his zeal for the Union. 

He supported the Raleigh Standard from the time it 
cried out for peace and he welcomed ihe close of the war. 
He is a man of very fair ability and is a skillful party 
manager. 



Ho^. J. K. WEBSTER, 



OF REIDSVILLE. 



The subject of this sketch is the present Speaker of the 
House of Representatives. He was educated at Trinity 
College. He has for several years conducted a paper 
called Wehster^s Weekly, a journal of influence in Rock- 
ingham and surrounding counties. 

In 1881 he was elected to the House of Representa- 
tives as a Democrat. 

In 1886 he was re-elected to the House as an Indepen- 
dent Democrat, receiving 555 majority over Roland Wil- 
liams, the regular Democratic nominee. In the organi- 
zation of the House he was nominated and elected Speaker 
by a coalition of the Independents and Republicans, 
receiving 59 votes against 57 cast for Lee S. Overman, 
Esq., of Salisbury. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 63 

Mr. Webster is a man of considerable ability. He is 
an original thinker and writer. He is a strong and fluent 
debater. 

In politics he has been a Democrat of the Sam Ran- 
dall school, but in the campaign of 1886 he ran as an Inde- 
pendent, as he opposed the re-election of Congressman 
Reid, and a number of his friends who dominated and 
controlled the councils of the party in Rockingham. 

In a speech just before the election for Speaker he said 
that his opposition to the Democratic party did not 
extend to its fundamental principles, and that if elected 
to the Speakership, it must be as a Democrat. He dis- 
charged the duties of his office with fairness and satisfalc- 
tion to the House. In the formation of committees and 
in his general conduct he displayed no inclination to 
side with the Republicans. 



Hon. lee S. overman, 

OF SALISBURY. 

Sou of William and Mary E. Overman. His mother 
was great-granddaughter of Major James Smith who 
figured prominently in this and other sections during 
the Revolutionary War, and after the battle of King's 
Mountain was taken prisoner, carried to Charleston, and, 
with other American prisoners, died of small pox. 

The subject of this sketch was born in Salisbury, Rowan 
county, on the 3d of January, 1854. He graduated at 
Trinity College, North Carolina, in 1874; degree of Mas- 
ter of Arts conferred by same college two years later ; 
taught school a year and a half; began reading law un- 
der J. M. McCorkle, of Salisbury, in 1876, and finished 
his course under R. H. Battle, of Raleigh. He received 
license to practice January, 1878. 



64 SKETCHES OF 

He married Miss Mary P. Merrimon, of Raleigh, 
daughter of Hon. A. S. Merrimon, now of the Supreme 
Court, October 31, 1878. He began the practice of law in 
Salisbury in 1880. 

He was Private Secretary to Governor Vance in 1877 
and '78 ; also Private Secretary to Governor Jarvis until 
December, 1879. Then he resigned that position to be- 
gin the practice of his profession. 

He was elected a member of the House of Representa- 
tives from the county of Rowan in 1882, as a Democrat, 
over G. A. Bingham, Independent. He was re-elected to 
the House in 1884, and again in 1886. He was the choice 
of the Democrats of the lasi House for Speaker, being the 
unanimous choice of the caucus, but he was defeated 
by a coalition of the Republicans and Independent Dem- 
ocrats — a defeat of only two votes. 

Mr. Overman is a good lawyer, a prominent Democrat, 
and a man of fine personal appearance. 



Hon. MARMADUKE SWAIN ROBINS, 

OF ASHEBORO. 

The subject of this sketch was born in Randolph 
county, N. C, the 31st of August, 1827. Son of John 
Robins. He was educated at Chapel Hill. He was mar- 
ried July 24th, 1878, to Miss Annie E. Moring, daughter 
of W. H. Moring. He obtained license to practice law 
in 1856, and has met with success. 

He was elected to the Legislature of 1883 as a Demo- 
crat, and served on the Judiciary, The Code, and other 
Committees. 

He is a man of unblemished integrity, conscientious 
and faithful in the discharge of his duties. He was 
known and feared in the Legislature as the " Watch Dog 
of the Treasury." 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 65 

B.01^. GEORGE M. ROSE, 

OF FAYETTEVILLE. 

Mr. Rose was born in Fayetteville, Cumberland county, 
in 1846. Entered Davidson College in 1861, and remained 
there two years, when he entered the Virginia Military 
Institute. Before he was seventeen years of age, he joined 
the army, becoming Adjutant of the 66th North Carolina 
Troops, Col. A. D. Moore, Commanding, forming a part 
of Kirklaud's Brigade in Hoke's Division. Capt. Rose 
served gallantly with that command until the end of the 
war. When peace was restored, he applied himself to 
the completion of his education, which had been inter- 
rupted by the call of duty to fight in defense of his coun- 
try. He entered Chapel Hill in 1865, and graduated in 
1867, delivering the salutatory of his class. Having 
chosen the law as his profession, Mr. Rose obtained hi& 
license at January Term, 1868, and located at Fayette- 
ville, where he soon laid the foundation of his present 
lucrative practice. His first public service was in the 
House of Representatives in 1876-'77, when, as a leading 
member of the Judiciary Committee, he gained a- repu- 
tation for judgment, discrimination and legal attain- 
ments. He was again elected to tlie House in 1880, and 
enhanced his reputation as a debater and a careful, pru- 
dent manager on the Democratic side of the House. He 
took a prominent part in the proceedings of the session. 
He was Speaker, pro tem , of the House last session, and 
discharged the duties of the Chair in the absence of 
Speaker Cooke with great acceptability. Mr. Rose has 
displayed marked executive ability during this session, 
and this, together with his ripe judgment, comprehensive 
intellect, natural gifts, universal courtes}^ and modera- 
tion in his bearing, renders him eminently fit for the 
responsible and honored position of Speaker he now fills. — 
Legislative Biographical Sketch Book, 1883. 

5 



66 SKETCHES OF ^ 

Hon. J. L. WEBB, 

OF SHELBY. 

The subject of this sketch is the State Senator from 
the 38th District. He was born in 1853 in Rutherford 
county, educated at Wake Forest College. Choosing the 
profession of law, he was prepared at the law school of 
Judge Pearson, at Richmond Hill. He received his 
license to practice in June, 1878. He enjoys a large 
clientage in his town and county, and a considerable 
practice also in Lincoln and Gaston. He also practices 
in the Federal Court at Charlotte. 

In 1883 he was elected to the Senate where he served 
with credit to his District. He was re-elected to the 
Senate in 1887, defeating W. A. Mooney, one of the most 
prominent and popular farmers in Cleveland county. He 
was chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs and 
Deaf and Dumb Asylums and a member of the Commit- 
tees on Corporations, Judiciary and Banking and Cur- 
rency. 

He and his partner have been attorneys for Cleveland 
€Ounty for ten years. 

Mr. Webb was Mayor of Shelby one term and has been 
repeatedly elected a member of the Board of Aldermen. 

In 1878 he was married to Miss K. L. Andrews. He 
has three children. 

He has canvassed his county several times for railroad 
subscriptions and was the first to speak in favor of the 
"Three C's" Railroad running through Cleveland county. 

He is a live, progressive man, and is very popular 
wherever he is known. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 67 

Hon. SAMUEL J. PEMBERTON, 

OF ALBEMARLE, 

Son of David S. Pemberton, born at Mt. Gilead, in 
Montgomery county, July 12th, 1849. He received his 
education at the Edinboro Academy, in Montgomery 
county. He was married to Miss Pattie F. Hearne, 
daughter of Eben Hearne, Esq., of Stanly county, July 
6th, 1871. He studied law and since his admission to 
the bar, he has steadily risen in his profession. 

In 1874, at the age of twenty-five, he was elected Solici- 
tor of the Fifth Judicial District. He discharged the 
duties of his office faithfully and won the reputation of 
a vigorous prosecutor. 

In 1883 he was elected to the Senate from the Twenty- 
eighth District over Dr. Solomon Furr, Independent 
Democrat, by 1,190 votes. He was chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Education and also of Enrolled Bills. He 
served on the Judiciary and other committees. 

As a legislator Mr. Pemberton was among the best. 
He speaks in a very attractive style, spicing his argu- 
ments with brilliant wit and a beaming humor. He is 
a very agreeable man in his manners and temperament, 
and his popularity extends among all classes. He is a 
man of fine personal appearance. 



68 SKETCHES OF 

HENRY B. ADAMS, Esq., 

OF MONROE, 

Is the son of Rev. S. D. Adams, a member of the North 
Carolina Conference. His mother, who died when he 
was at the early age of about four years, was Martha 
Fletcher. Henry was born in Marlboro county (than 
District), near Adamsville, in South Carolina, on the 26th 
day of January, 1849. When he was about three years 
of age, his father entered the itinerant ministry as a 
member of the North Carolina Conference. After the 
death of his mother, at Carthage, he went to his uncle's 
in Marlboro, S. C, where he spent his time for a few years 
in going to the comm n schools and working on the 
farm. He spent some time in the academies of the neigh- 
borhood of his uncle's during the war, and after the war 
was at Spring Hill Academy in Richmond county, N. C, 
under the tutorage of John Monroe Johnson, who is now 
a member of the law firm of Johnson & Johnson, at Ma- 
rion, S. C. In 1867 he entered Trinity College, N. C, 
where he remained until he graduated in 1870. After 
leaving college, he studied law with Jas. D. Mclver, 
who afterwards became solicitor of the Fourth Judicial 
District. He was licensed to practice law by the Supreme 
Court of North Carolina in June, 1871. In January, 1872, 
he located at Monroe, N. C, and engaged in the practice 
of his profession. In April of that year he was married 
to Miss Fannie Person. Six children, equally divided 
between the sexes, are the result of the marriage. He is 
now a member of the law firm of Covington & Adams. 

In 1884 he was elected a member of the General As- 
sembly of North Carolina, where he served with great 
acceptability to himself and infinite disgust to some of 
his constituents. Owing to the evident displeasure of a 
number of his constituents, he consented (?) to become a 
candidate for the position of State Senator in 1886, to 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 69 

represent the 27th Senatorial District, composed of the 
counties of Union and Anson. He was elected. His 
people have not abused him much (owing to the fact that 
they are afraid that he will be a candidate again). He 
has hence concluded that he will not offer again as a 
martyr for them. He has therefore served his last time 
in the Senate Chamber of North Carolina, unless Gov- 
ernor Scales should see fit to call a special session before 
November, 1888, so as to undo some of the things done, 
and thus leave the State in as good a condition as it was 
before. 



CHARLES F. WARREN, Esq., 

OF WASHINGTON, 

Was born September 6th, 1852, in Washington, N. C. 
Entered Washington-Lee University, Lexington, Va., in 
October, 1869, and graduated in June, 1873. Obtained 
his license ac the June Term, 1874, of the Supreme Court, 
and has since that time continuously practiced in Beau- 
fort and adjacent counties. Politics, Democrat. This is 
Mr. Warren's first term in the Senate, and virtually had 
no opposition. This district is composed of Beaufort, 
Martin, Washington, Tyrrell, Pamlico, Hyde and Dare. 
Is chairman of the Committee on Internal Improve- 
ments; is also a member of the committees on the Judi- 
ciary, Privileges and Elections, Salaries and Fees, and 
Military ASairs.— Legislative Biographical Sketch Book, 1 887. 



70 SKETCHES OF 

RICHMOND PEARSON, Esq., 

OF ASHEVILLE, 

Was born at Richmond Hill, Yadkin county, January 
26th, 1852. Graduated at Princeton College in 1872, 
delivering the valedictory. Studied law under his father, 
the late Chief Justice Pearson. Married March 30th, 
1882, to Miss Gabrielle Thomas, of Richmond, Va. Was 
nominated for the Senate in 1878 by the Democratic 
party in Surry and Yadkin and was defeated. Removed 
to Buncombe several years ago and now has one of the 
most attractive places (a few miles from Asheville) in the 
county — Richmond Hill — he having adopted the name 
of his old native place in Yadkin county. He has done 
much in the way of making improvements in and around 
the town of Asheville. Represented his county in the 
House in 1885, and his course at that time, as well as at 
the session of 18^7, was such as eminently met the hearty 
approval of his constituents. — Legislative Biographical 
Sketch Book, 1887. 



JAMES H. HARRIS, (Negro,) 

OF RALEIGH. 

Mr. Harris is the most prominent and influential col- 
ored man of the Republican party of our State. A man 
of rare mental faculties which have made him conspicu- 
ous despite an imperfect education. Had he received a 
classical education he might have rivalled any North 
Carolinian as an orator. But he is self-educated and has 
a degree of culture uncommon among his race. He has 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 71 

originality, wit, liumor, pathos and all the elements of a 
fine orator. His speeches are very interesting and very 
forcible. 

He was born in Granville county about 1830; married 
Isabella Hinton. He was a member of the Constitutional 
Convention of 1868. In 1869 he was elected to the 
House of Representatives. In 1872 to the Senate and 
again elected to the House in 1883. He has been a mem- 
ber of the Board of Aldermen of Raleiffh several years. 
He was for four years Director of the Institution for Deaf 
and Dumb and the Blind. He was Deputy Collector of In- 
ternal Revenue in 1872. 



DENNISON WORTHINGTON, Esq, 

OF WILLIAMSTON, 

Was born October 6th, 1843, in Murfreesboro, Hert- 
ford county. Educated in North Carolina and Maryland. 
Went into the war at first in 8th Regiment N. C. Troops, 
and afterwards assigned to the charge of signal and 
mounted scouts on the peninsula below Richmond. Was 
wounded there and captured May 6th, 1864, and held as 
hostage until March, 1865, and surrendered at Warren- 
ton, N. C, after the fall of Appomattox. Read law un- 
der Hon. J. J. Yates, and Martin, Baker and Hinton, of 
Norfolk, Va., and received license to practice in the courts 
of Virginia in 1869. Now located at Williamston and 
practicing his profession under tlie law firm of Moore & 
Worthington. Married Miss Julia, daughter of Col. S. J. 
Wheeler, of Bertie county, November 17th, 1871. Been 
Solicitor and Judge of the Inferior Court ; was a member 
of the Legislature of 1881, at which session he was chair- 
man of Committee on the Appointment of Justices of the 
Peace. He serves on committees : Judiciary, Fish Inter- 



72 SKETCHES OF 

ests, and Enrolled Bills. He is Speaker pro tern, of the 
House of Representatives, chairman of the Joint Com- 
mittee to Redistrict the State, chairman of Committee on 
Rules, chairman of Committee on Military Affairs, and 
member of The Code Committee. Mr. Worthington has 
taken a very prominent stand in this General Assembly, 
and isaleading and influential member. —Legislative Bio- 
graphical Sketch Book, 1883. 



Hon. ROBERT PAYNE WARING, 

OF CHARLOTTE. 

The subject of this sketch was born in King and Queen 
county, Va., on the 1st day of February, 1827, at the 
family seat of the Roanes. His mother, Miss Roane, was 
a daughter of that historic family. 

In his earliest school days he was under the tuition of 
H. J. Christian, afterwards Professor of Ancient Lan- 
guages in Richmond College. At the age of 16 he en- 
tered the junior class at Richmond College, where he re- 
mained two years. In '45 he matriculated at the Uni- 
versity of Virginia, and took an irregular course, gradu- 
ating in '47 in the School of Law. 

In 1848 he married Augusta, the third daughter of 
Hon. Louis D. Henry, and settled in North Carolina in 
1850, and entered upon the practice of law. In 1854 he 
was elected County Attorney, and after serving four years 
was unanimously re-elected, but resigned the same week 
to accept the U. S. Consulship to St. Thomas, Danish 
West Indies. Wheeler's Reminiscences say he filled this 
responsible and honorable position with signal ability, 
reflecting great credit upon the Government. In April, 
1861, he promptly tendered his resignation, preferring to 
throw his fortune in with the struggling South than to 
live in ease in the service of her then oppressors. In 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 73 

June, 1861, he returned to the United States and was ar- 
rested on his arrival and held a prisoner until October. 
Fortunately a letter of introduction, which he bore from 
a prominent Captain of the Merchant Marine to the own- 
ers of his ship, secured him his release on parole, and thus 
he escaped imprisonment in Fort LaFayette. After tlie 
most thorough investigation, no charge could be estab- 
lished against him. He had only, with his usual ur- 
banity, lifted his cap in passing a vessel on the water 
which bore the emblem of the infant Confederacy. On 
his release he returned to North Carolina, and in '61 
raised a company and served until January, '64, when, 
from disability from wounds and rheumatism, he was 
retired. In the fall of the same year, at the request of 
General Holmes, he took a posUion in a regiment of Se- 
nior Reserves, and was stationed at Salisbur}^ where, in 
1865, he was captured by General Stoneman and taken 
to Camp Chase. When released in July of the same 
year, he returned to Charlotte and became the editor of 
the Daily Times. Wheeler says so fearless and outspoken 
was his condemnation of the politico-military adminis- 
tration, that he was arrested by the military command- 
ant in the time of peace and tried before a court martial, 
where he vas defended by Hon. B. F. Moore and Col. E. 
G. Haywoftd. Conviction was a foregone conclusion, and 
be was offered the alternative of paying a fine of three 
hundred (1300.00) dollars in five days, or suffering six 
months' imprisonment in Fort Macon. 

The folloving account of this extraordinary proceeding, 
written by Mr. J. L. Chambers, then editor of the Char- 
lotte Ohservir, is worthy of preservation : 

RuGER's RuiiNG— The Trial and Conviction of Capt. R. P. 
Waring for Inciting Insurrection in 1865. 



In cpnversatioa with ('apt. Robt. P. Waring, a reporter of the 
Ohsert^r discovered that he still has in his possession the findings 
of the^eourt martial, and other interesting facts connected with 
his triil by the military authorities for inciting insurrection in 



74 SKETCHES OF 

1865 by means of certain editorial articles in the Carolina Times, 
of which he was editor. The trial occurred in the city of Ral- 
eigh in the first part of the year 1866, and is remarkable as being 
the only instance of a Southern man being on trial by a court 
martial on this charge, subsequent to the war. 

On the 24th of December Capt. Waring was arrested in this 
city under orders from Major-General Ruger, of the United States 
Army, and taken to Raleigh, where he was kept in close confine- 
ment for several weeks. Hon. Bat. Moore, of that city, visited 
him shortly after he arrived there, and voluntarily tendered his 
services to defend him before the court, at the same time inform- 
ing him that he was convicted before he left Charlotte. Not- 
withstanding this, he made a splendid defence, delivering what 
he regards himself as the ablest speech of his life. 

The following notice of Capt. Waring's arrest appeared in the 
Charlotte Democrat of the day following the occurrence : 

ARRESTED. 

Just as we are going to press we learn that Mr. R. P. Waring, 
the editor of the Times, has been arrested and carried to Raleigh, 
by order of Gen. Ruger, We suppose Gen. Ruger has taken ex- 
ception to some editorial published in the Times, although the 
editor has always made strong professions of loyalty to the gov- 
ernment. We regret that the military authorities se< proper to 
act in that way, and we cannot but look on it as wrong, tyranni- 
cal and unauthorized by the constitution or usages c^ a Repub- 
lican Government. We enter our protest, as a publicj journalist, 
against these arrests by Gen. Ruger. Arresting editors does a 
great dealmore harm than anything they have publitped in their 
papers. ' 

The trial began on the 2d of January and the following was 
sent to Capt. Waring as the finding in the case : j 

Headquarters Department of North Cmiolina, 

Raleigh, N. C, January f.7th, 1866. 
General Court Martial Orders No. 1. 

I. * * Before a Military Commission which convened at Ral- 
eigh, N. C, January 2d, 1866, pursuant to Special Orders No. 
252, dated Headquarters Department of North Carolina, Raieigh, 
N. C, November 28th, 1865, and of which Lieutejiant Cjlonel 
George T. Shaffer, 28th Michigan Infantry, is Pfesiden , was 
arraigned aud tried : 

Robert P. Waring, citizen. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 75 

CHARGE. 

''For publishing and circulating disloyal and seditious writings 
within a District under Martial Law." 

Specifioation. — In this, that Robert P. Waring, citizen, of Meck- 
lenburg county, State of North Carolina, and editor of a news- 
paper, named and known as the '"Daily Carolina Times,'''' pub- 
lished at Charlotte, in the county and State aforesaid, did pub- 
lish in said newspaper, and circulate, an article in words as fol- 
lows : 

* * ^^ * 'i-^Yg ^Ye still without Washington news, and look 
forward to the report of the Committee on Credentials with some 
interest, though without hope of receiving justice. The South 
is now under a more grinding despotism than has heretofore 
found a place upon the face of the earth. Raised under a form 
of government, as expounded by the early fathers of the repub- 
lic, when to say, "I am an American citizen," was equal to J» 
king, we feel our serfdom more painfully by reflecting upon what 
we have lost. We have fallen from our high estate, and now 
there is "none so poor as to do us reverence." Other nations, 
while suffering under the iron heel of lawless tyranny, can con- 
sole themselves with the reflection that their condition is no 
worse than that of their predecessors. The Russian serf, as he 
eats his bread of dependence, knows that such was the inherit- 
ance of his fathers. Not so with the proud, high-souled south- 
ron. He once roamed his field a free man, and "sat under his 
own vine and fig tree, and none dared make him afraid." He 
was the equal, if not the superior, of the mercenary race which 

now dominates over him." 

****** ***# 

And that the said article was calculated, and intended, to pro- 
duce hostility to the Government of the United States, to excite 
discontent, and to cause resistance to the constituted authorities. 
All this at Charlotte, N. C, on or about the 13th day of Decem- 
ber, 1865. 

To which charge and specification the accused, Robert P. 
Waring, citizen, pleaded as follows : 

To the specification to the charge, ''• guilty,'''' except so much 
as alleges " that the said article was calculated, and intended, to 
produce hostility to the Governpient of the United States, to 
excite discontent and to cause resistance to the constituted 
authorities." 

To the charge, " not guilty.''^ 



76 SKETCHES OF 

FINDING. 

The court having maturely considered the evidence adduced, 
finds the accused, Robert P. Waring, citizen, as follows : 
Of the specification to the charge, " guilty.'''' 
Of the charge, '' guilty ^ 

SENTENCE. 

And the court does therefore sentence the accused, Robert P. 
Waring, as follows : "That he pay to the Government of the 
United States a fine of three hundred dollars (^300). And in 
ease such fine is not paid within five days from date of order 
promulgating proceedings in this case, then that he be imprisoned 
for six months at such place as the Commanding General may 
'direct." 

II. The proceedings, findings and sentence in the foregoing 
case are approved and confirmed. The fine will be paid to the 
Chief Quartermaster of the Department, and if not paid within 
the time specified in the sentence, the prisoner will be sent under 
guard, and delivered to the commanding officer at Fort Macon, 
North Carolina, under whose direction so much of the sentence 
as relates to confinement will be executed. 

By command of Brevet Major-General Ruger: 

J. A CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Adjutant General. 
Official : 

J. A. Campbell, Assistant Adjutant General. 

The fine was duly paid, as is shown by the receipt below, and 
Capt. Waring was released on the following day : 

Received, Raleigh, N. C, January 19th, 1866, of Robert P. 
Waring, citizen, the sum of Three Hundred Dollars, being the 
amount of a fine assessed by a Military Commission and received 
by me in accordance with General Court Martial Orders, No. 1, 
Headquarters Department of North Carolina. 

M. C. GARBON, 

§300.00. Brevet Col. and Chief Q. M. 

This is a sample of the justice that was meted out to North 
Carolinians when the people of the State were trodden under 
foot by military despots. 

Such treatment gave him notoriety and his paper a 
wider circulation. It was by his able editorials he con- 
tributed largely to the change of administration at the 
ballot-box. iMr. Waring had been elector on the Buch- 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 77 

anan ticket. " In 1870 he was sent to the Legislature, (we 
again quote from Wheeler,) where an important and novel 
question met him at the threshold — should North Caro- 
lina place herself on record as the first American State 
to exercise the power of impeaching a Governor? Troops 
had been raised by this Governor, ostensibly to ferret out 
the perpetrators of two mysterious murders, but without 
a resort first to the j^osse comitatus — worst of all, this was 
done on the eve of a general election. The best citizens 
of the State in two counties had been arrested without 
the pretence of indictment or information and incarce- 
rated as common felons, to await trial by a contemptible 
militia court martial, and this, too, in a time of profound 
peace. The great writ of habeas corpus had been suspen- 
ded, and a band of cut-throats were here, under com- 
mand of the notorious Kirk, to enforce the lawless orders 
of this petty usurper. Should such conduct, at the sug- 
gestion of probable Federal interference, be overlooked 
or- patiently borne, or should an example be made for 
posterity? Mr. Waring's position was not doubtful. 
Liberty is more valuable than money, and eternal vigi- 
lance is its price. His influence was acknowledged in 
appointing him on the committee which prepared the 
articles of impeachment." In 1872 he was unanimously 
nominated for the Senate, and after a most exciting and 
able canvass, in which General Barringer was his oppo- 
nent, backed by the Secretary of the Federal Treasury, 
he was triumphantly elected. He was re-elected in '74, 
and served as the chairman of the Committee on Internal 
Improvements, chairman of the Joint Committe to Com- 
promise, Commute and Settle the Public Debt, and was 
also a member of several other committees, among them 
the Judiciary. Of this period of his public service the 
Albemarle Times says : " There is no more unflinching, 
gallant and devoted member of the Democratic party 
than Robert Payne Waring. He is an elegant scholar 
and an accomplished gentleman. No man has been the 
object of so bitter and persistent persecution as this Sen- 



78 SKETCHES OF 

ator. The Radicals hate him because he is a bold and 
fearless advocate of the rights of the people. His influ- 
ence in the Senate is very great, because he is a cool, 
cautious and winning debater and tactician. A Democrat 
of the Jefferson school, a strict constructionist of the Con- 
stitution, a States' Rights man, Senator Waring will al- 
ways command the respect and admiration of his fellow- 
men. The people of the West 'wear him in their heart of 
hearts,' and well they may, for he is the Chevalier Bayard 
of the Democratic party." 

In 1876 Mr. Waring was elector on the Tilden ticket, 
and cast the vote of his district for that great statesman, 
just twenty (20) years after he had voted in the Electoral 
College for Buchanan. The College chose him to take 
the message to Washington and deliver it to the Vice- 
President. In 1877, on the organization of the Inferior 
Court for Mecklenburg county, he was elected Chairman, 
and was regularly re elected by acclamation until 1884, 
when he resigned to accept a seat in the House of Rep- 
resentatives in the Stale Legislature. He was of course 
elected, for he has never been defeated before the people, 
though he has served them for the third of a century. 
He is regarded as a fluent, clear and forcible speaker. 

In 1885 he was appointed by President Cleveland As- 
sayer, in charge of the U. S. Assay Office at Charlotte, 
N. C, which honorable and responsible position he now 
fills with entire satisfaction to the Government as well as 
to his friends. 

We conclude this brief and imperfect sketch with an- 
other extract from Wheeler: "Mr. Waring has borne 
himself worthy of his antecedents, and is ever alive to 
anything that touches the dignity of the State. He is a 
strict constructionist of the Constitution, as also of the 
obligations of a gentleman. He has been twice married — 
first to a daughter of Hon. Louis D. Henry, by whom he 
has four children, three sons and one daughter; and 
second, to the daughter of Rev. N. Aldrich, of whose 
charming society he has recently been bereft." 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 79 



He is still vigorous, and takes deep interest in the 
politics, material and educational development of the 
State he has served so long and so faithfully. 



Hon. B. H. BUNN, 

OF NASH COUNTY. 

Is one of the leading lawyers in the State and, in addi- 
tion to the practice of his profession, is at the head of 
large farming interests and large manufacturing inter- 
ests. He is actively concerned in the advancement of 
agriculture as a leading member of the Agricultural 
Society of his county and otherwise, and in short is in 
all respects a public-spirited, progressive citizen. He 
has ever been a faithful sentinel on tlie watch-lower of 
Democracy and has never failed to raise his voice on 
proper occasions in behalf of Democratic principles. Of 
winning manner and most pleasing address, he makes 
friends wherever he goes and wherever known is loved 
as it is permitted few men to be. He is an admirable 
representative.of the State Democracy, and the unanimity 
of sentiment in his favor which resulted in his recent 
nomination for Congress by acclamation was but a just 
tribute to his staunch Democracy, his sterling patriotism, 
his wisdom and boldness and gallantry in the fight, politi- 
cal or otherwise. He is a man the district really delights 
to honor, and he will prove himself fully worthy of this 
enviable distinction, or we are no prophet. 

Capt. Bunu was born in the county of his residence 
October 19th, 1844. His education was confined to the 
curriculum of a preparatory school, the war breaking 
out just as he was ready to enter college. With the 
spirit and patriotic fervor which has ever characterized 



80 SKETCHES OF 

him he joined the army in July, 1861, in his 17th year, 
and served throughout the war with distinction and with 
such faithfulness as is attested by the scars of two wounds 
which he received respectively at Gettysburg and at 
Petersburg a few days before Lee evacuated the city. 

At the close of the war he began reading law with Mr. 
Dortch, and in June, 1866, was licensed to practice the 
profession of his choice. Since that time he has practiced 
at Rocky Mount, rising by steady steps to the highest 
rewards of what the fathers of the law were wont to call 
a jealous mistress, and stands to-day among the best- 
known lawyers of the State. 

He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 
75 and of the General Assembly of '83; Presidential 
elector of this district in '84 and messenger for the State 
of North Carolina. In the generous rivalry of ^S6 for 
the party nomination for Congress he was conspicuous, 
as our readers will readily recall, and was afforded a sup- 
port of which any man might well have been proud. — 
News and Observed. 



Hon. WILLIAM PAUL ROBERTS, 

OF GATES COUNTY. 

Was born in Gates county, July 11th, 1841. His occu- 
pation is that of a farmer, but his war record is brilliant. 
In June, 1861, he entered the Confederate army as a non- 
commissioned officer in the Second North Carolina Cav- 
alry. .By his coolness and dashing bravery, he was soon 
promoted to a captaincy; although the junior captain, he 
was soon promoted to Major. In 1865 he was commis- 
sioned Brigadier General, and was presented by the great 
chieftain with his own gauntlets as a mark of General 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 81 

Lee's personal recognition of the young hero's distin- 
guished gallantry. His brigade was one of the best known 
and most highly appreciated in the army of Northern 
Virginia for its bravery and courage. General Roberts 
was the youngest general in Lee's army, and probably in 
the history of the world. 

His services have been no less great in peace than in 
war. With the same courage and energy he addressed 
himself not only to building up his own fortune butthat 
of the Democratic party. In 1875 he represented Gates 
county in the Convention; 1876-'77 he was elected a 
member of the Legislature. By his quick perception 
and profound thought as a legislator, he had much to do 
in shaping the legislation of these two bodies, where 
his services were so appreciated that the Democratic State 
Convention of 1880 placed him on the State ticket for 
the position of Auditor, being elected and rendering such 
efficient services in the office that he was re-nominated 
and elected in 1884. As a gallant soldier, legislator and 
financier, General Roberts has few equals in the State. 



Hon. WILLIAM LAWEENCE SAUNDERS, 

SECRETARY OF STATE, 

Was born in Raleigh, July 30th, 1835, graduated from 
the University of North Carolina 1854; studied law 
under Judge Battle; was admitted to the bar in 1856. 
He lived in Salisbury until the civil war opened. He 
volunteered in April, 18G1, as a member of the Rowan 
Rifle Guards, commanded by Captain Frank McNeely, 
and was ordered to Fort Johnston, below Wilmington, 
but in June he was appointed Lieutenant in the Rowan 
Artillery, then in camp near Weldon, and went direct 
from there to Virginia. In 1862 he was appointed Cap- 
6 



82 SKETCHES OF 

tain of an infantry company raised in Salisbury and 
joined the 46th N. C. Troops. The regiment afterwards 
became a part of Walker's Brigade, afterwards Cook's 
Brigade, and participated in many of the severest battles 
of the war. He became by successive promotions Major, 
Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel. He was twice wounded, 
once at the battle of Fredericksburg, in the right cheek, 
again at the battle of the Wilderness, in May, 1864, the 
ball entering the left corner of his mouth and passing 
out at the back of his neck on the right side. 

He was married in 1864 to Miss Florida Call Cotten, 
who died in 1865, and he has since remained a widower. 

In 1870 and 1872 Col. Saunders was Secretary of the 
Senate and made a most acceptable officer. In 1872 he 
became one of the editors of the Wilmmgton Journal, and 
in that capacity wielded a great influence for Democracy. 
In November, 1876, he removed to Raleigh and estab- 
lished the Observer. In 1879, at the advice of his physi- 
cian, he retired from journalism. In February of the 
same year the death of Maj. Engelhard made vacant the 
office of Secretary of State, and Gov. Jarvis appointed 
Col. Saunders to fill the vacancy. Since then he has 
continued in that office. 

Col. Saunders is now writing the history of the Colo- 
nial Government in North Carolina, six volumes of 
which are already published. 

He is a man of very large heart and of very upright 
character. He is widely known throughout the State 
and his popularity abounds wherever he is known. The 
history he is writing shows that his information is exten- 
sive and that his ability as an historian is conspicuous. 

Sketches of his life are found in Wheeler's Reminis- 
cences and in other publications. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 83 

Hon. DONALD W. BAIN, 

TREASURER OF NORTH CAROLINA, 

Was born at Raleigh, April 2d, 1841. Educated at the 
Lovejoy Academy. He entered the service of the State 
in the office of the Comptroller under Governor C. H. 
Brogden in 1857, where he remained until appointed 
Chief Clerk of the Treasury in 1865, which position he 
continued to hold until his election as Treasurer of the 
State in 1884. His term as Treasurer began January 
1st, 1885. In the latter capacity he has won the confi- 
dence of the people and a reputation which has insured 
his re-nomination. He is a man of very pleasant address. 
He is regular in attendance at his office and very atten- 
tive to the details of his office duties. 

In 1867 he was appointed Grand Secretary of the Grand 
Lodge of Masons of North Carolina, which position he 
now fills. 

He was married to Miss Addie V. Hill, daughter of the 
late Dr. W. G. Hill, an eminent physician. 



JAMES COOK BIEDSONG, 

STATE LIBRARIAN, 

Was born in Southampton county, Va., March 15th, 
1843. His parents moved to Petersburg, Va., a few years 
after, where his father engaged in the blacksmith and 
wheelwright business, which he carried on successfully 
until his death in 1855, leaving the mother with seven 
children to raise. 

In 1856 Mr. Birdsong entered the office of Crutchfield 
& Campbell, publishers of the Daily Express^ in Peters- 



84 SKETCHES OF 

burg, the leading paper of Virginia in that day, where 
he remained until the breaking out of the war, when, 
scarcely 18 years of age, he volunteered in Company " B," 
12th Regiment Virginia Infantry, in which he faithfully 
served until Appomattox was reached, where he was 
ordered to lay aside his military accoutrements and return 
to the life of a civilian. 

Arriving in Petersburg he immediately returned to the 
printing oflSce, where he labored day and night to accu- 
mulate the means whereby his mother, sisters and 
younger brother might again be reunited and begin life 
anew. (His eldest brother being a wounded prisoner at 
Johnston's Island, the care and support of the family 
devolved upon James.) 

On Saturday, May 2d, 1863, he was taken prisoner at 
Chancellorsville. As soon as exchanged he reported for 
duty to his company and endured the hardships of camp- 
life until May, 1864, he was wounded through the right 
shoulder while defending his country's cause at Cold 
Harbor. In 1866 his two brothers having obtained lucra- 
tive situations, the care of the family was turned over to 
his eldest brother, and he made Raleigh his home, where 
he still worked at the "case" until October, 1885, he was 
appointed by the Trustees of the Public Library, Libra- 
rian in charge of the State Library, which position he 
has filled with great satisfaction, gaining the reputation 
of being the best Librarian the State has ever had. An 
examination of the Library fully accords him that right. 

In 1867 he was united in marriage to Ophelia, second 
daughter of the late A. J. Crocker, of Raleigh, and from 
that union he has a family of four boys and three girls. 

Mr. Birdsong is a member of the Board of Deacons of 
the Raleigh Baptist Tabernacle, and his heart and purse 
are ever open, as far as his means will justify, assisting in 
every good work and responding to all the calls of the 
poor and sufifering made upon him. 

A zealous member of the I. 0. 0. F., he is recog- 
nized as one of the leaders, never missing a session of 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 85 

the Grand Lodge, if not prevented by sickness or some 
other unavoidable circumstance. 

In every sense of the word he is a typical representa- 
tive of the workingman ; his father having been a prac- 
tical blacksmith and he a first-class printer. 



86 SKETCHES OF 



LEGAL. 



Hon. W. K H. smith, LL. D., 

OF RALEIGH. 

The subject of this sketch is the senior member and 
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of this State. For 
forty years he has been in public life, and during that 
period he has shown himself well qualified for the posts 
he has held. His judicial decisions are much admired 
for their logical clearness and precision. 

He was born in Murfreesboro, Hertford county, N. C, 
the 24th of September, 1812. His father was William L. 
Smith, a native of Connecticut, who graduated from Yale 
in 1802, removed to Hertford county, practiced medicine, 
Djarried in 1810 and died three years later. The Judge's 
mother was a native of Hertford county. Her name was 
AnnHarrell. 

William graduated from Yale in '34, after which he 
studied law in the Yale Law School. He entered into 
the practice of his profession in Hertford, where he had 
an extensive practice. In 1870 he moved to Norfolk, Va., 
and after a residence there of two years, he located at 
Raleigh, where as a member of the firm of Smith & 
Strong he engaged in a successful practice. 

The Legislature of 1848-'49 elected Mr. Smith State 
Solicitor for the Superior Courts of the ten counties con- 
stituting the First Judicial District. This office he filled 
with credit for two terms of four years each. 

In 1870-'71 he was selected by Gov. Holden as one of 
his counsel in the case of impeachment for misdemeanors 
in office and made the closing argument in his defense, 
which was published, making a pamphlet of over seventy 
pages. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 87 

In 1840 his political life began, when he was elected to 
the House of Commons from Hertford county. In 1848 
he was elected to the Senate from the district in which 
he resided. 

In 1857 he was nominated for Congress by the Whigs 
of his district, and was defeated by a very small majority. 
In 1859 he was re-nominated and elected. Mr. Smith 
proved to be a strong and popular member of Congress 
and was elected by the Southern representatives as their 
choice for Speaker, but after a long struggle and many 
ballots he was defeated. He remained in his seat and 
was present at the inauguration of Lincoln. 

He was a member of the Confederate Congress during 
its entire existence. 

In 1865 he was again elected to the House of Com- 
mons and aided in the reconstruction of the State under 
the plan of President Johnson 

In 1878 he was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court by Gov. Vance to fill the vacancy caused by the 
death of Chief Justice Pearson. He was elected in the 
fall of the same year and re-elected in 1886 to the same 
high office. 

He received the honorary degree of LL. D. from Wake 
Forest College in 1874, from the University in 1875 and 
from Yale in 1881. 

On the occasion of the celebration of the fortieth anni- 
versary of the graduation of the class of 1834 of Yale 
College, Mr. Smith was present and was made chairman 
of the meeting. On Commencement Day the class dined 
at Alumni Hall, wlien Mr. Smith, on the call of Presi- 
dent Porter, responded for the class of '34 with very great 
acceptance. 

Mr. Smith married Miss Mary Olivia Wise, of Mur- 
freesboro, in 1839. They have living two sons; William 
Wise, a General Insurance Agent, and Edward C, a law- 
yer, both residing in Raleigh. 



88 SKETCHES OF 

Hon. AUGUSTUS S. MERRIMON, 

OF RALEIGH. 

Augustus S. Merrimon was born in Transylvania, then 
a part of Buncombe county, in September, 1830. His 
father was a minister of the Gospel, uniting in his char- 
acter the highest Christian virtues; but unfortunately 
the circumstances of his life did not enable him to secure 
for his children the advantages of a finished education. 
His son Augustus worked during his boyhood on the 
farm and at a saw-mill, attending tlie Old Field School in 
the neighborhood at irregular intervals. B«t possessed 
of a disposition to learn and ambitious to excel, he rose 
superior to the disadvantages of his condition, and study- 
ing as occasion permitted, without a teacher, he qualified 
himself for the study of the law, and on attaining his 
twenty-first year was admitted to the profession and at 
once located at Asheville, where the bar was unusually 
learned, able and aggressive. 

Brought into contact wuth the strong lawyers of that 
period, he early formed the habit of thoroughly prepar- 
ing every case as the only means of successfully meeting 
his well equipped adversaries. Soon his acknowledged 
thoroughness won for him public confidence and he 
speedily reaped the reward of his care and diligence. 
He was often elected County Solicitor under the system 
then in force, and made rapid strides towards the front 
rank in his profession. 

In 1860, when public questions were greatly agitating 
the people, he was, as a Union Whig, elected to represent 
Buncombe county in the Legislature; and on the break- 
ing out of the war he was tendered a staff appointment 
as Major by the Governor of the State, but being almost 
immediately elected Solicitor for the Mountain District, 
he accepted that office, which he held during the war 
period. In that district civil war sometimes raged, and 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 89 

oftentimes neighborhoods, and even households weredivi- 
ded, some adhering to the Union, while others espoused 
with loyal devotion the cause of the South. 

Under those circumstances, the duty of enforcing the 
law became most delicate and responsible, and as State 
Solicitor he acted with firmness and address, with zeal, 
courage and a high patriotism. 

In 1866, when the conservative people of the State had 
elected Gov. Worth, Governor, and a legislature in entire 
harmony with their sentiments, Mr. Merrimon was 
elected a Superior Court Judge, and gained much celeb- 
rity in those districts where he had his ridings. 

The following spring the Reconstruction Acts were 
passed, and, under the act of Congress, North Carolina 
became subject to the arbitrary will of a military com- 
mander, who in August, 1867, directed the courts of the 
State to disregard the laws passed by the Legislature and 
to enforce military orders instead. Judge Merrimon pre- 
ferred to resign rather than be an instrument to carry 
into effect military orders subverting the laws he had, as 
a Judge, sworn to execute. 

Returning to the bar, he located at Raleigh and at once 
entered upon a lucrative practice. At that time steps to 
subvert the existing State Government were being rapidly 
taken. The negroes were enrolled as voters and a con- 
vention was called to frame a new Constitution. Judge 
Merrimon, who was ardently attached to the great princi- 
ples of Co(]stitutional Liberty, could not be an idle spec- 
tator when the rights of the people of the State were 
being so ruthlessly stricken down. He threw himself 
with all his might into the struggle, and along with 
Graham, Bragg, Battle and other distinguished men, 
sought unavailing to arrest the destruction of our old 
State institutions. In the campaign of that year he was 
Chairman of the State Executive Committee of the Con- 
servative party, and he was nominated as one of the five 
Supreme Court Judges voted for at the same time with 
the proposed Constitution. 



90 SKETCHES OF 

During 1869 his political activity continued, and in 
1870, when the Kirk war was inaugurated, he labored 
with great zeal, contributing articles to the Sentinel news- 
paper, participating in the campaign and working inces- 
santly. It was chiefly through the exertions of himself 
and Judge Battle that the prisoners arrested by Kirk were 
finally released by Judge Brooks of the Federal Court, 
the power of the State judiciary having been declared 
" exhausted.'* When, as the outcome of the success 
achieved at. the polls, the ijew Legislature impeached 
Governor Holden, Judge Merrimon was associated with 
Governor Graham and Gv^vernor Bragg as counsel to con- 
duct the impeachment, and in that trial the examination 
of the witnesses was assigned as his part. In the per- 
formance of this duty, he exhibited a masterful grasp of 
the intricate details of the case that was truly remark- 
able. His skill was most admirable, and he won for 
himself a great reputation. 

The next year the Conservatives turned to him as the 
most available candidate for Governor; but despite a 
memorable canvass, in which he endeared himself still 
further to the people, he was defeated by Gov. Caldwell 
by a small majority. Indeed, for some days it was thought 
that he was elected on the face of the returns; but when 
the delayed counties were heard from the result was 
adverse. Yet it was hoped that sufficient frauds could 
be proved to justify a contest, and for a month f)ublic 
feeling was high over an anticipated contested election 
for the office of Governor. The State Committee of the 
Democratic-Conservative party associated with itself a 
number of distinguished gentlemen to examine into the 
naerits of the case and recommend a course of action, 
but after a thorough and exhaustive investigation it was 
ascertained that a contest could not be sustained on the 
merits, and Judge Merrimon was so informed and advised 
not to make the proposed contest. 

The Legislature of that fall was to choose a United 
States Senator to succeed John Pool, and Judge Merri- 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 91 

mon's name was brought forward as well as that of Gov. 
Vance. An unfortunate contest arose over this matter 
and some of the Democrats who preferred Judge Merri- 
mon refused to go into the party caucus. Gov. Vance 
received the caucus nomination, but the caucus Demo- 
crats were unable to elect, and after a week of violent 
struggle both of the candidates withdrew. A second 
caucus was thereupon called, and a few moments before 
the Houses were, under the law, to vote on joint ballot, 
Gov. Vance was again nominated, but in the balloting 
for Senator that almost immediately followed, some of 
the anti-Vance Democrats voted for Judge Merrimon and 
the Republicans also voted for him, and also some of the 
Democrats who had attended the caucus; and he was, 
without any knowledge on his part, elected. With the 
concurrence of Democratic friends of unquestioned party 
fealty, standing high in public confidence, he accepted 
the election and served this term in the Senate, where he 
was esteemed as a useful and able member, zealous for 
the interests of the people and faithful to the Democratic 
party. 

In the Senate, he was active and efficient, entering 
largely into the discussion of questions interesting to the 
South and making many excellent speeches, that on 
Affairs in Louisiana greatly enhancing his reputation. 
At the end of his term he resumed the practice of the 
law, at Raleigh, and on the resignation of Judge Ruffin 
from the Supreme Court Bench in 1883, he was appointed 
to the vacancy by Gov. Jarvis, and was in 1884 elected 
to fill out the term, being again elected to a new term in 
1886. 

Judge Merrimon is possessed of unusual capacity for 
labor, has a robust intellect, an acute understanding and 
a mind peculiarly analytical and logical. Being of 
studious disposition, and diligent in research, he has 
amassed a great fund of information, and as a Judge he 
is accurate and comprehensive. In habits, he is strictly 
temperate; in character pure and incorruptible; in 



92 SKETCHES OF 

morals, excellent; in friendships, constant. In the galaxy 
of great North Carolinians who have acted on the stage 
of public life contemporaneously with himself, he takes 
rank with the foremost in all the qualities that contrive 
to makeup the well-rounded man. 



Hoist. EDWIN GODAYIN READE, LL. D., 

OF RALEIGH, 

The second of three sons of Robert R. and Judith A. 
Reade, nee Gooch, was born at Mt. Tirzah, Person county, 
North Carolina, November 13th, 1812. 

He was a child when his father died, and was reared 
by his mother, who was well educated for her day, and 
was thereby enabled to give to her sons at home the ru- 
diments of education, which, with the country schools, 
was all the early education they had. 

Edwin worked on the farm, in the carriage shop, in 
the blacksmith shop and in the tanyard; and at eighteen 
started out to get an education by his own exertion. 

He entered the academy of George Morrow, in Orange 
county, where he made extraordinary progress. 

He then entered the academy of Rev. Alexander Wil- 
son, D. D., at Spring Grove, in Granville county, as as- 
sistant teacher, until he was prepared for college; but 
instead of entering college he commenced the study of 
the law at home at his mother's in 1833, reading the 
books of Benjamin Sumner, a retired lawyer, who was 
kind enough to lend them, and occasionally to examine 
him. He got license in 1835, and preliminary thereto 
he became a candidate for the Legislature, solely for the 
purpose of forming acquaintance with the public and 
practicing public speaking. On Tuesday of June court, 
when candidates were accustomed to declare themselves. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 93 

the Democrats nominated two candidates for the Com- 
mons and one for the Senate, and when the candidates 
had made the'ir speeches from the court bench, Mr. Reade, 
having mentioned his purpose to only one man in the 
county, went up on the bench and declared himself a 
Whig candidate in a well prepared and well delivered 
speech, arraigning General Jackson's administration. The 
folly of this, if done with a serious view to election, ap- 
peared in the fact that there had been in the last election 
only eleven anti-Jackson votes in the county. 

But the Democrats were so much surprised by the as- 
sault that the}^ withdrew one of their candidates, neither 
of whom was gifted in speech, and put in his place James 
M. Williamson, who had graduated in college and was 
reading law in Greensboro with his brother-in-law. Judge 
Dick, the elder. 

The young men were about the same age, tall, siender, 
good looking, good speakers; each felt that he had a foe- 
man worthy of his steel, and made a canvass able and 
interesting. Many of the voters declared that they would 
vote for both the "boys" as an honor to the county. 
They did so, and Reade was beaten only one hundred 
votes. His purpose was accomp)lished. He soon became 
interested in all the business of the county, and rose to 
distinction and wealth. Mr. Reade was never in office 
until 1855, when, without his knowledge, he was nomi- 
nated for Congress by the Whig-American party against 
Hon. John Kerr, the incumbent, and, after one of the 
ablest and most exciting canvasses ever held in the State, 
he was elected by some two to one majority, his own 
county, which was more than two to one Democratic, 
voting for him by a handsome majority. Congress was 
not congenial to him, and on the day of the expiration of 
liis term he published a card declining a second canvass. 
Continuing his practice in the Superior Courts, he quit 
the practice in the County Court of his own county, and, at 
the instance of Hon. J. W. Cunningham, who was then in 
the Legislature, was appointed a magistrate, and presided 



94 SKETCHES OF 

as Chief Justice of the County Court without compensa- 
tion, for a number of years, with great acceptability and 
much benefit to the county, which is felt to* this day. He 
was elected to the Superior Court in 1863, and served to 
the close of the war, when all the oflSces were vacated. 
He was then appointed to the Superior Court by the Gov- 
ernor, and served until 1866, when he was elected to the 
Supreme Court by the Legislature, with Pearson Chief 
Justice, and Battle and Reade Justices, where he served 
until the new State Constitution was adopted in 1868, 
which gave the election of Judges to the people, when he 
was again nominated by both parties, and of course 
elected, and served until 1878, when his term expired. 
He was then elected President of the Raleigh National 
Bank, in which all his fortune was invested. The Bank 
was then in bad condition, its stock being 75 cents on the 
dollar. The stock was soon restored to par, and was at a 
premium when its charter expired. He was then elected 
President of the National Bank of Raleigh, and now oc- 
cupies that position. 

As a financier he was successful. After leaving Con- 
gress he took no part in politics until the war approached. 
He was always of the Whig school, and strongly opposed 
secession. When the first State Convention was called 
to consider the question, he was elected to it b}^ a large 
majority ; but the Convention was voted down. When 
the second Convention was called a few months later, and 
secession was inevitable, he declined to be a candidate. 
And after the State seceded, he accepted the result and 
did his duty to the State. After he was elected to the 
Superior Court in 1863, and before he took his seat, he 
was appointed a Senator in the Confederate Congress by 
Governor Vance to fill the vacancy caused by the resig- 
nation of Hon. George Davis, and at the expiration of 
his term he took his seat on the bench. 

At the close of the war, when the State Convention was 
called to form a new Constitution and return to the Union, 
he was almost unanimously elected a delegate to it, there 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 95 

being but fifteen votes against him ; and, without the 
slightest expectation, he was elected President of the Con- 
vention. It was one of tlie ablest bodies that ever met 
in the State, charged with the most important matter. 
An informal ballot, without nomination, was had, and 
several members were voted for; and Mr. Reade having 
the largest vote, was then elected by acclamation. His 
address on taking his seat was much complimented North 
and South and in Congress as manifesting the patriotic 
sentiment then prevailing. Immediately on the adjourn- 
ment of the Convention lie took his seat on the Supreme 
Court at its January Term in 1866, to which he had been 
previously elected. In 1865, while President of the Con- 
vention, and after he was elected to the Supreme Court, 
the degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by the Uni- 
versity of North Carolina. He was an ardent Free Ma- 
son, and was twice elected Grand Master, in 1866-'67. 

He was married to Miss Emily A. L. Moore, of the 
family of General Moore, of Revolutionary fame, and of 
the family of Bishop Moore, of the Episcopal Church. 
She died early in 1871, and in the latter part of 1871 he 
married Mrs. Mary E. Parmele, widow of Benj. J. Parmele, 
who now resides with him. He joined the Presbyterian 
Church while teaching in Dr. Wilson's school, and has 
been an active member all his life, and a ruling elder 
for more than thirty years. 

He took no part in politics while on the bench nor 
since, not even voting, and although twice nominated for 
Congress he declined. 

As a writer, Mr. Reade has attained distinction. 

He has delivered the literary address before the Liter- 
ary Societies at Wake Forest College. In 1855 he wrote 
Pickle-Rod Letters in favor of temperance. 

He wrote a Vindication of the legal profession against 
the assault of Rev. William Hooper, D. D.,LL. D. 

He delivered the address at the laying of the corner- 
stone of the U. S. Post Office at Raleigh, and on laying 
the corner-stone at the Oxford Orphan Asylum, and the 



96 SKETCHES OF 

address before the Bar Association of North Carolina at 
Asheville in 1884, and before the same at Raleigh at the 
close of his term as President thereof in 1886; all of which 
were published in pamphlet. 

On the incoming of Mr. Lincoln's administration, Hon. 
John A. Gilmer, then in Congress from North Carolina, 
wrote to Mr. Reade, at the instance of Mr. Seward, to 
know whether he would accept a seat in Mr. Lincoln's 
Cabinet. And he answered that he would not accept a 
seat in any cabinet, but he strongly urged Mr. Gilmer to 
accept. 

AS A SPEAKER, 

Judge Reade is clear, forcible, and direct. Without 
any special gifts of oratory he speaks with that logical 
simplicity that is of itself the highest form of eloquence 
and which always convinces and converts. 

While at the bar he ranked as the equal of Badger and 
Miller, and in fact, it is said by those who knew him in 
the prime of life that as an advocate before a jury, he has 
never had his superior in the history of the State. 

AS A JUDGE, 

He was diligent and faithful, clear in his opinions, 
cogent in his argument, always having the courage of his 
convictions. He has written the opinion of the Supreme 
Court in some of the most important and troublesome 
questions that have ever come before that tribunal, and 
always in singularly clear English. In reading his opin- 
ions one never failed to know and see what was the point 
involved and what the decision of the Court; and many 
of these opinions are masterpieces of judicial literature. 

He sat on the Supreme bench at a time when political 
warfare in North Carolina was bitter and unscrupulous, 
and he left the bench with the regard and esteem of the 
bar and the people. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 97 

t 

CHARACTER, MANNERS, ETC. 

From his early youtli be has been a man of simple 
faith and the strictest integrity. He has always bated 
sham and false pretense and humbug. 

Plain, direct, straightforward and conscientious, he has 
risen by the force of his own effort and will-power from 
an humble station to distinction and eminence and 
wealth. 

His life is radiant with good deeds. To many persons 
in distress and need and sorrow, he has given a bright- 
ened life, and his charities have been always "done in 
secret." A God-fearing man from his youth; of simple, 
unostentatious manners, easily approached, filled with 
human sympathy, he has spent a long life in the per- 
formance of his duties to God and man. 

May God preserve him yet many years. 



Hon. WILLIAM PEESTOJST BYNUM, 

OF CHARLOTTE, 

Was born in the county of Stokes, N. C, on the 20th 
of June, 1820, is of English and Welsh descent, and 
is the third of five sons. John Gray Bynum, the eldest^, 
was among the foremost intellects of the State; he read 
law at New Berne under Judge Gaston, and early distin- 
guished himself by his great abilities as a lawyer and 
statesman. He died in the prime of life at Wilmington. 
The grandfather of William Preston Bynum was Gray 
Bynum, who, during the war of the revolution, repre- 
sented the county of Surry, then embracing Stokes, in 
the Legislature of the State. 

His grandmother, on the father's side, the wife of Gray 
Bynum, was Margaret tiampton, the sister of the elder 
7 



98 SKETCHES OF 

General Wade Hampton and grand aunt of the present 
General Hampton. His father was Hampton Bynum, a 
large landed proprietor in Stokes, on the waters of Dan 
River, who was distinguished for his unbending integ- 
rity and great charity. He was never known to turn 
away the poor empty, and he annually distributed 
among them a large part of the income of his landed 
estates. 

The mother of the subject of this sketch was Mary 
Colman, the daughter of Col. John Martin, of Stokes, of 
revolutionary memory. Col. Martin was distinguished 
during the war of Independence for his boldness, cour- 
age and patriotism, and in civil life was equally remark- 
able for his independence, firmness and love of justice. 
(See Wheeler's History, title Stokes county.) 

The subject of this sketch was educated at Davidson 
-College, where he graduated with the undivided first dis- 
tinction in 1843. He then read law with Chief Justice 
Pearson, and obtained his license twelve months after, 
from Judges Ruffin, Daniel and Gaston, then presiding on 
the Supreme Court bench. Mr. Bynum's license was the 
last one signed by the lamented Gaston, who shortly 
thereafter suddenly died while sitting on the bench 
holding court. 

Mr. Bynum first located in Rutherfordton, where he 
engaged in the practice of the law and remained until 
his marriage with Ann Eliza, the daughter of Bartlett 
Shipp, of Lincoln county, a very able man and distin- 
guished lawyer. He then removed to Lincoln county 
and soon rose in his profession to the first rank of the 
practitioners at that time. Some years after, he was 
elected Solicitor of that judicial district, and by repeated 
appointment or re-election continued to be Solicitor and 
prosecuting officer of the State for eleven years and until 
his appointment to the Supreme Court bench, in the year 
1873. He remained upon the bench near five years, and 
the Supreme Court Reports from Vol. 70 to Vol. 79, both 
inclusive, contain his opinions and well attest his 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 99 

abilities and his unflinching impartiality and fidelity to 
his great trust. 

At the expiration of his terra of oflBce, Judge Bynum 
declined to be a candidate for re-election, and avowed 
his purpose not again to enter into public life. He has 
been repeatedly solicited to allow his name to be put in 
nomination for Governor of the State, and at the last 
election for Judges of the Supreme Court he was nomi- 
nated by the Republican party for the office of Chief 
Justice of the Supreme Court. He, however, adhered to 
his former resolution and declined the use of his name. 
Since retiring from the bench, Judge Bynum has returned 
to the active practice of the law, and since 1873, has 
resided in the city of Charlotte, where he now lives in 
the enjoyment of a well earned fortune and home. 

Judge Bynum and his ancestors were Whigs in poli- 
tics and ardently attached to the integrity and preserva- 
tion of the National Union. Therefore he openly and 
boldly opposed the doctrine of secession before the people 
and predicted the disastrous result to the South. When, 
however, Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to suppress 
the rebellion, it in a great degree united the South in 
resistance, and Mr. Bynum, like most others of his opin- 
ions, volunteered his services in defence of the South. 
In 1861 he was appointed by Gov. Ellis Lieutenant- 
Colonel of the 2d Regiment of State Troops. He 
remained in active service in the army of Virginia for 
about two years and participated in all the battles around 
Richmond and in the first battle of Fredericksburg. In 
1863, while in camp in winter quarters upon the Poto- 
mac, in command of the 2d Regiment, he was elected by 
the Legislature of his State as Solicitor of the 6th Judi- 
cial District and returned home and immediately entered 
upon the laborious and delicate duties devolved upon 
one who had often to prosecute both Union men and 
secessionists for infractions of the law, growing out of 
the war. He discharged his duties with fidelity and 
impartiality and to the satisfaction of the public. 



100 SKETCHES OF 

After the war was over, Judge Bynum was elected by 
the people of Lincoln county to the Convention to form 
a new Constitution in 1865, and the next year he repre- 
sented the counties of Lincoln, Gaston and Catawba in 
the State Senate. 

He lost his wife in June, 1885. He had but two chil- 
dren, a son and daughter, the latter of whom died when 
about grown. His only surviving child, his son, the 
Rev. W. S. Bynum, is a priest of the Episcopal Church in 
the Diocese of North Carolina. 

The degree of LL D. was conferred on Judge Bynum 
in 1875, by Davidson College. 

The subject of this sketch possesses a highly intellec- 
tual mind. His habits .are studious, his comprehension 
quick, and his memoi-^- accurate. He is thoroughly 
versed in the several branches of his profession, the 
criminal and civil law. His Supreme Court decisions 
are lucidly written and exhibit a great power of analysis. 
He is an advocate of great force. His premises are plainly 
stated, his reasoning is compact and logical and his con- 
clusions well drawn. He speaks in a correct and vigor- 
ous style, using very little imagery and displaying a 
refined literary taste. He i^ta man of integrity and 
probity; elevated in his sentiments and averse to any 
notoriety or display. He is one of the most eminent 
men who have ever honored the profession of law in 
North Carolina. 



Hon. DAVID SOHENCK, LL. D., 

OF GREENSBORO. 

David Schenck is of Swiss descent. In the year 1708, 
Michael, John and Henry Schenck, who were brothers, 
were exiled from Switzerland on account of their Protes- 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 101 

tant faith, being Menonites, followers of Meno Simon, a 
Swiss reformer. 

Tlie three brothers first emigrated to England, and as 
their faith was very similar to that of the Quakers, Wil- 
liam Penu invited them to join his colony in Pennsyl- 
vania, and they settled near Lancaster; Michael owned 
the spot where that city now stands. Michael Schenck, 
No. 2, son of the progenitor, in America, was born Feb- 
ruary 28th, 1737, and died September 2'^d, 1811. 

Michael Schenck, No. 3, who was Judge Schenck's 
grandfather, was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylva- 
nia, February 15th, 1771, and immigrated to Lincolnton, 
Lincoln county, N. C, about the year 1790, and soon 
became a merchant, and subsequently in 1813, erected 
the first Cotton Factory ever bunt South of the Potomac 
River; it was located on Mill Branch, one and three 
quarter miles east of Lincolnton, and out of this enterprise 
sprung the old Lincoln Cotton Factory on the South 
Fork, two miles south of Lincolnton. 

Dr. David Warlick Schenck, father of David, was bora 
at Lincolnton, February 3d, 1809, and died at the same 
place December 26th, 1861. He was one of the first stu- 
dents of Jefierson Medical'-College, Philadelphia, and was 
distinguished as a surgeon. 

The subject of this sketch was born at Lincolnton, 
N. C, March 24th, 1835. His mother was Susan Rebecca 
Bevens, of Charleston, South Carolina. He was educated 
mostly by Silas C. Lindslay, an accomplished scholar, in 
the Male Academy at Lincolnton. 

He studied law in 185o-'56 with the late Haywood W. 
Guion, Esq., and obtained his County Court license in 
June, 1856. 

In the fall of 1856, and spring of 1857, he attended 
the law school of the late distinguished Chief Justice, 
Richmond M. Pearson, at Richmond Hill, Yadkin county, 
N. C. Hon. Thomas C. Fuller, Judge W. J. Montgomery, 
John D. Shaw, Esq., and Judge David M. Furches were 



102 SKETCHES OF 

his cotemporaries, with others, less distinguished at the 
school. 

In June, 1857, he settled in Dallas, Gaston county, 
N. C, with a pittance of money and almost an entire 
stranger, but the generous and hospitable people of that 
county soon removed the poverty and gave him hosts of 
friends. 

On the 25th day of August, 1859, he was married near 
Lincolnton, to Sallie Wilfong Ramseur, sister of General 
Stephen D. Ramseur. 

In November, 1860, he came back to Lincolnton. 

He held the office of County Solicitor in Gaston county 
and afterwards in 1860 in Lincoln county. 

The Hon. William Lander, who was elected as a dele- 
gate to the Secession Convention of the State in 1861, 
resigned his seat in a few weeks to become a member of 
the Confederate Congress, and an election was ordered to 
fill the vacancy. No nominations were made, and quite 
a number of prominent gentlemen were voted for, but 
Judge Schenck received the greatest number of the votes 
and succeeded Mr. Lander in the Convention, and par- 
ticipated in its subsequent sessions until it adjourned in 
May, 1862. 

In 1869, his friends expecting to have a bill passed by 
Congress to remove his disabilities, had 19 out of 21 
votes in the Senatorial District Convention composed of 
Lincoln, Catawba and Gaston, to cast for him, but as the 
bill failed. Dr. Crowell received his strength and was 
nominated. 

On the 13th of May, 1874, he was nominated by the 
Democratic Judicial Convention, which met at Lincoln- 
ton, as their candidate for Superior Court Judge of the 
9th Judicial District, and after an exciting campaign he 
was elected by over 1,400 majority, doubling the Demo- 
cratic majority in the previous elections. 

He served as Superior Court Judge until April 1st, 
1881, when finding that the salary was wholly inadequate 
to support his large family, he was forced to resign and 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 103 

became General Counsel for the Richmond & Danville 
Railroad Comj>any in North Carolina, and has continued 
in that position ever since. He removed to Greensboro 
as most convenient for the discharge of his onerous 
duties, the 22d of May, 1882. 

He has declined to enter public life since 1881. 

The city of Greensboro recently voted to issue one 
hundred thousand dollars city bonds, for improvements, 
and, as he advocated this measure earnestly, he was 
elected, and is now servihg as one of the Aldermen of 
the city to carry out this enterprise. 

He is also General Counsel for the Charleston, Cin- 
cinnati & Chicago Railroad Company in North Carolina. 

He is the father of seven sons and two daughters, all 
living. 

He has always been an ardent Democrat, and up to 
1874 took an active part in every political campaign. 

He is a Presbyterian ; was an Elder of the church at 
Lincolnton, from 1874 to 1882. 

Was Master of his Lodge of Masons at Lincolnton for 
several years ; was Mayor of Lincolnton one year, and 
often on its Board of Aldermen. 

The title of LL. D. was conferred on him by the Uni- 
versity of North Carolina Jutie 5th, 1886. 

He was tendered the position of Associate Justice of 
the Supreme Court of North Carolina by Gov. Jarvis, but 
declined. As an advocate and jurist he has scarcely an 
equal in the State. 

He has a large and select library and reads extensively. 
He is what one may call a hard worker. He rises very 
early in the morning and n^ver retires at night until he 
has mastered every detail of the task for to-morrow. 



104 SKETCHES OF 

Hox. R. F. AEMFLELD, 

OF STATESVILLE. 

The subject of this sketch is one of the most highly 
gifted men in the State. He is a clear lieaded thinker, 
an interesting and convincing orator, a very fine advocate, 
a man of broad, comprehensive mind, decided and 
strong in his convictioris, and practical in all things. He 
stands among the leaders at the bar. 

He was born on a farm, July 9th, 1829, three miles 
west of Greensboro, Guilford county. He remained on 
the farm, working with his father, until he was fourteen 
years of age; in the meantime occasionally attending 
common schools in the winter. At the age of fourteen 
he went to Trinity College, then " Union Institute," just 
starting under the auspices of the late Dr. Craven. After 
one session there, he returned home and taught a com- 
mon school. From that time until he was twenty years 
old, he studied at Union Institute and taught common 
schools alternately, paying for the whole of Ins education 
himself. After he was twenty years old, he began read- 
ing law with the late Hon. John A.Gilmer. After obtain- 
ing his license to practice law, he taught school about one 
year, at the end of which time he settled in Yadkinville, 
Yadkin county, and commenced the practice of his pro- 
fession. He was married in 1857. In 1861, when the 
war broke out, he was elected a member of the Rebel Con- 
vention for Yadkin county, and took his seat as a mem- 
ber on May 20, 1861, on which day he signed the Ordi- 
nance of Secession passed by that Convention. He re- 
mained in the Convention until February 14, 1862, when 
he resigned his seat to enter the army. He enlisted with 
Company B, 38th Regiment N. C. Troops, in which com- 
pany he was elected First Lieutenant. On the re-organi- 
zation of the regiment at Goldsboro in the spring of 1862, 
he was elected its Lieutenant-Colonel, and went with it 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 105 

to the Army of Northern Virginia. He was in the Seven 
Days' Fight around Richmond, and stayed with the regi- 
ment until wounded in the battle of Shepherdstown in 
October, 1862, when he returned home on furlough. 
While at home he was elected by the Legislature as So- 
licitor to prosecute for the State in the Sixth Judicial 
District, whereupon he resigned from the army and held 
the office of Solicitor until the close of the war. He was 
relieved of his office by President Johnson on account of 
disloyalty to the Union. In the summer of 1865 here- 
moved to Wilkesboro and practiced law there until the 
fall of 1870, when he removed to Statesville. He was 
elected to the Senate of North Carolina by the district 
composed of Iredell, Alexander and Wilkes in the year 
1874, and on the assemblage of the Legislature he was 
elected President of the Senate, and presided over that 
body during the whole of tne session of 1874-'75. In 1878 
he was elected to the Forty-sixth Congress from the 7th 
District. He was re-elected in 1880 to the Forty-seventh 
Congress. As a Congressman he served with accepta- 
bility. His speeches were favorably received by the 
House and the public, and his reputation and usefulness 
would have greatly expanded, but he had to give up his 
office in obedience to the popular idea of rotation, and 
for no other reason. 



Hon. ALPHONSO CALHOUN AVERT, 

OF MORGANTON. 

Judge Avery was born September 11th, 1835. His 
father was Col. Isaac T. Avery, of Burke county, the only 
son of Col. Waightstill Avery, who was a signer of the 
Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, and a mem- 



106 SKETCHES OF 

ber of the Colonial Congress, and first Attorney-General 
of North Carolina. 

Col Waightstill Avery belonged to an old family of 
New England. The first representative was Christopher 
Avery, who canoe to America in 1620 His son, James 
Avery, built a house, still standing, near New London, in 
1640. Colonel Avery graduated in the second class ever 
graduated at Princeton. He studied law in Maryland, 
and was induced to settle at Charlotte by Eph. Brevard, 
Adlai Osborne, and the then President of Trinity College, 
who had been with him at Princeton. At the Centennial 
Celebration in September, 1881, of the capture of Fort 
Griswold by Arnold, it appeared from inscriptions on the 
monument, that many who bore the name of Avery had 
been killed, wounded and captured at that place. 

The mother of Judge Avery was Harriet Erwin. She 
was a daughter of William W. Erwm, a leading citizen 
of Burke county. She was granddaughter of Col. William. 
Sharpe, a Revolutionary soldier, and the first representa- 
tive in Congress from the Rowan district. Colonel Sharpe 
married a daughter of Mr. Reese, who was a signer of the 
Mecklenburg Declaration. 

Judge Avery was prepared for college at Oaks, in Or- 
ange county, by the late William J. Bingham. He grad- 
uated at the University of North Carolina in 1857, hav- 
ing stood first in his class throughout his college course. 
Among his classmates were Col. Thomas S. Kenan, Major 
Robert Bingham, Hon. W. P. McLean, of Texas, and 
Thomas N. Hill, of Halifax. 

He studied law under Chief Justice Pearson, and was 
licensed under the old law to practice in the County 
Courts in June, 1860. He was prepared to stand his ex- 
amination for Superior Court license, but before the year 
expired he was in the army. He was not licensed until 
June, 1866. 

On the 27th of February, 1861, he was married to Miss 
Sue W. Morrison, daughter of Rev. R. H. Morrison, of 
Lincoln, and granddaughter of Gen. Jos. Graham. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 107 

He joined the 6th N, C. Regiment early in May, 1861, 
when it was being formed at Charlotte under Col. Chas. 
F. Fisher. He was commissioned First Lieutenant of 
Company E of that regiment, and was engaged in the 
battle uf Manassas in 1861, when Colonel Fisher was 
killed. His brother, Captain (afterwards Colonel) I. E. 
Avery, and himself were both complimented for gallant 
conduct in the report of that battle. 

In July, 1862, he became Captain of his company, when 
Isaac E. Avery was promoted to the Colonelcy of the regi- 
ment. He commanded his company until after the first 
battle of Fredericksburg in December, 1862, when he was 
commissioned Major and Assistant Adjutant General and 
assigned to duty as Inspector of D. H. Hill's Division of 
the Army of Western Virginia. In March following he 
was ordered to North Carolina with D. H. Hill, and ac- 
companied Hill to Richmond in July of the year 1863. 
When General Hill was promoted, he was sent with him, 
in August, 1863, to Bragg's Army, and was with General 
Hill in the battle of Chickamauga. When General Hill 
was ordered to report at Richmond in consequence of 
disagreeable relations with General Bragg, Major Avery 
remained and served on the staff of the corps with Breck- 
inridge, Hindman and Hood, who successively comman- 
ded in the winter of 1863~'64. He served on Hood's staff 
on the retreat from Dalton to the Chottohorchie river in 
1864. He came home on leave when two of his brothers 
were killed, and was eventually ordered to report for duty 
in North Carolina. When he was captured by Stevenson 
at Salisbury, he was commanding a battalion, and was 
forming a regiment on the western border of North Caro- 
lina. He remained in prison until August, 1865. 

He was elected to the State Senate, by a large majority, 
in 1866, from the counties of Burke, Caldwell and Mc- 
Dowell, and served therefore in the last legislative body 
elected exclusively by the white people of North Carolina. 
He was again elected from the senatorial district com- 
posed of Burke, Caldwell and Watauga in 1868, but at 



108 SKETCHES OF 

the instance of Governor Caldwell the Republican Senate 
determined that he was barred, because he had been 
elected Solicitor of Burke county in February, 1861. He 
declined to run for the Legislature after that time. 

In 1875 he was a member of the Constitutional Con- 
vention from Burke county. Those who served with 
him know that the Democrats were more indebted to 
him than any other member for their success in securing 
the organization of that body, and he was foremost in 
shaping the work of that Convention. 

He was elector for the Eighth Congressional District 
when Tilden was elected in 1876. He was elected Judge 
of the Eighth Judicial District in 1878, and re-elected as 
Judge of the Tenth District in 1886. He has recently 
been nominated for Associate Justice of the Supreme 
Court. 



Hon. WILLIAM MAECUS SHIPP, 

OF CHARLOTTE. " 

Born November 19, 1819, in Lincoln county. He gradu- 
ated at the University in 1840, delivering the salutatory 
address; was admitted to the bar 1842; practiced in 
Lincoln and the mountain district. At the beginning 
of the civil war he was elected Captain of a volunteer 
company in Hendersonville, and served in that capacity 
in Virginia until he was elected Judge, one year after. 
He served as Judge until 1868, when he was nominated 
by the Democratic party for Attorney-General on the 
ticket with Hon. A. S. Merriraon, candidate for Governor, 
<fec., and was the only Democrat on the ticket elected. 
He practiced law in Charlotte from 1872 to 1881, when 
he was appointed by Governor Jarvis Judge of the Supe- 
rior Court to succeed Hon. David Schenck, resigned. He 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 109 

was re-elected for eight years in 1S82. He was a mem- 
ber of the Legislature before the war. 

He has been twice married : First, to Catherine Cam- 
eron, daughter of Judge John A. Cameron ; second, to 
Margaret Iredell, daughter of James Iredell, at one time 
Governor of North Carolina and U. S. Senator. 

Judge Shipp is one of the best informed lawyers in the 
State. He has a marked legal mind, reasons closely, and 
as a jurist is eminent. He has no superior on the bench. 

He is fond of history and the literature of our language, 
especially the standard works. He is interesting and 
lively in conversation, and has much wit and humor. 



Hon. ROBEET PAINE DICK, 

OF GREENSBORO, 

Son of Hon. John M. Dick and Parthenia P. Dick ; 
born in Greensboro, N. C, October 5th, 1823. He was 
prepared for college in Greensboro, at the celebrated 
Caldwell Institute. 

Entered the University of North Carolina at Chapel 
Hill, June, 1840, graduated with distinction, June, 1843. 

He was admitted to the bar in 1845, and soon after 
located at Wentworth, N. C. 

He was married June 27th, 1848, to Mary E. Adams, 
of Pittsylvania county, Va. Soon after marriage he 
removed to Greensboro, where he now resides. 

He was a member of the Democratic National Conven- 
tion at Baltimore, 1852. 

In 1853 he was appointed by President Pierce U. S. 
District Attorney for North Carolina; held that ofiSce 
until February, 1861, when he sent in his resignation, 
which was accepted in April, 1861. 



110 SKETCHES OF 

He was a delegate in the Democratic National Con- 
vention at Charleston and Baltimore, 1860. 

At Charleston he cast the vote that gave Senator 
Stephen A. Douglas a majority of the Convention. 

At Baltimore he was the only member of the North 
Carolina delegation that remained and acted in the 
National Convention, from which the Southern delegates 
seceded. 

He was Elector for the State-at-large on the Douglas 
and Johnson ticket, and was also a member of the 
National Executive Committee of the wing of the Demo- 
cratic party to which he belonged. 

He was elected a delegate to the State Convention of 
1861, without being a candidate; hesigned the ordinance 
of secession after verbal protest, and introduced a motion 
to submit the Constitution of the Confederate States 
to a vote of the people of the State. This motion was 
the subject of an animated discussion in the Convention 
for several days, before its rejection. 

He was prominent among the Union men (as they 
were called) and made a speech against the Test Oath 
ordinance that was introduced in Convention and was 
rejected. 

He was a member of the Council of State during a part 
of the administration of Gov. Vance. 

He was elected as Senator for Guilford county in 1864, 
as a peace man. In the Legislature of 1864-'65, took a 
prominent part in the discussion of all measures that 
tended to a peace and to the restoration of the Union of 
all the States, and alwa^^s opposed the encroachments of 
the military power upon the civil power of the State 
and the just liberties of the people. 

He took no active part in the military service of the 
civil war of the States, but always felt and manifested a 
deep sympathy in the sorrows and misfortunes of the 
Southern people, and did what he could to minister to 
the comforts of the soldiers of the Confederate army. 

In May, 1865, at the request of President Johnson, he 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. Ill 

went, to Washiugton City with other citizens of the State 
for the purpose of having a conference as to the best 
method of reconstructing the governnaent of the State in 
relation to its normal condition in the Union. 

He earnestly advocated the restoration of the State 
under its old Constitution and form of government with 
some necessary amendments; he also advocated the 
liberal and just policy of general amnesty, as he believed 
that the State by an unlawful and unsuccessful attempt 
at secession had not been dissevered from the American 
Union, and that its people were still entitled to all the 
rights and privileges of citizens under the Constitution 
of the United States. 

In May, 1865, he was appointed by President Johnson 
U. S. District Judge for the State of North Carolina; 
held the commission of office two months and then 
resigned, as he would not take the Test Oath of office 
(known as the ''Iron Clad"). He practiced his profession 
for three years with much success during the transition 
period of reconstruction. 

He was a member of the State Convention of 1865-'66 
and took part in forming a Constitution that was rejected 
by a vote of the people. He earnestly advocated the 
acceptance of the measure known as the Howard Amend- 
ment, as he believed that it contained the best terms of 
reconstruction that could be obtained from the Congress. 

In March, 1867, he was a member of the political 
Convention that organized the Republican party of this 
State. He is still a Republican, but by no means a bitter 
partizan. 

In April, 1868, was elected by a large majority Asso- 
'ciate Justice of the Supreme Court, and qualified in July, 
1868 ; remained on that bench four years and assisted in 
shaping and directing the new mode of legal i)leading 
and procedure introduced by the Constitution of 1868, 
and also in determining many important questions of 
law — of "first impression" — that arose out of the civil 
war and the troublous times of reconstruction. 



112 SKETCHES OF 

In June, 1872, he was appointed by President Grant 
U. S. District Judge for the Western District of North 
Carolina. In this position he has administered with 
great mercy and forbearance the unpopular Internal 
Revenue laws, and encountered many difficult questions 
as to conflict of jurisdiction in Federal and State Courts, 
and his rulings were in accordance with subsequent deci- 
sions of the U. S. Supreme Court. He delivered an 
address on the life and character of Chief Justice Pear- 
son, June 8th, 1881, at the unveiling of the monument 
to his memory (in Raleigh). 

He always took great interest in the progress of the 
State in agriculture, internal improvement and all indus- 
trial pursuits. 

He has devoted much time to the study of literature, 
especially Biblical literature, and has delivered literary 
addresses at the University, at Davidson College and 
before many male and female seminaries of learning. He 
is an active friend of public education and has delivered 
lectures before Normal schools and Sabbath schools. 

An earnest advocate of temperance reform and has 
delivered many addresses on the subject. 

In 1878, in association with Judge John H. Dillard, he 
established the Greensboro Law School, in which more 
than 150 students have been prepared for a successful 
examination before the Supreme Court. He has deliv- 
ered a number of Introductory lectures on the History 
and Literature of the Law, which have been published 
and circulated. 

The following specimen of his literary style is taken 
from his published lecture on "The Influence of Poetry 
on National Development:" 

"Poetry is an interesting and instructive part of a nation's 
history, as it is a production of the intellectual and moral facul- 
ties, feelings and sentiments of the people. 

* *■# * * * # * * 

"God formed the earth as a beautiful home for man, and it 
was consecrated with his benediction and the songs of angels. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 113 

He also gave to maa the faculties for perceiving and appreciating 
the true, the beautiful and the good, and enabled him to express 
his feelings and emotions of love, joy, hope and devotion in the 
rhythmic strains of poetry and the sweet, soft notes of melody. 
Poetry and music may well be considered as ministering angels 
which ever keep in living purity and freshness on earth some of 
the bliss of the sinless Eden. 

" 'The poet who said 'Let me write a Nations song's, and I 
care not who writes its laws' was by no means a visionary 
enthusiast, but he was a profound philosopher, who, by intuition, 
observation and experience, had learned some of the strong influ- 
ences which mould a nation's life. The songs and poems of a 
nation are important elements in its history, and they furnish the 
words, thoughts and imagery that sparkle like jewels in its lan- 
guage and literature. 

" While the Welsh Bards lived their nation was unconquerable. 
With rude minstrelsy they aroused the enthusiastic patriotism of 
that brave and imaginative people who loved liberty and the 
craggy mountains and wild valleys that lie between the Severn 
and the sea. 

"The simple songs which are sung in the cottages among the 
Hartz mountains and beside the Baltic, the Danube and the 
Rhine, link even the self exiled Grerman to the memories and 
scenes of the Vaterland with ties of love and devotion which 
time and distance are powerless to break. 

" The Ranz des Vaches is indeed to the Switzer a song of home, 
and when heard even in the fairest climes of the earth causes 
tears of love to flow, and carries his heart back again to the hum- 
ble cottage where his mother nursed him in the Alpine glen. 

"The Marseillais Hymn inspired French patriots with daunt- 
less heroism in the early years of that grand revolution which sa 
long filled Europe with mourning and the horrors of strife and 
carnage, and resulted in misery and martial glory, but not free- 
dom to France. 

" 'God Save the Queen' is intimately associated with England's 
greatness and renown, and keeps in glowing life the national love 
and loyalty of those brave and gallant sailors and soldiers whose 
reveille greets the rising suii as it gilds with morning light every 
clime of the earth. 

" 'The Star Spangled Banner' fills every patriotic American 
heart with love and pride for that glorious land whose fiag of 
stars is the emblem of freedom, and whose protection and power 
are co-extensive with the globe. 

" 'Home, Sweet Home' is one of the dearest and most touching 
domestic lyrics that human voice has ever sung, and is almost 
worthy of the lips of the sinless Seraphim. Its tender pathos 

8 



114 SKETCHES OF 

causes the eyes to fill with tears and the bosom to swell with the 
holiest and purest emotions, 

" 'Old Hundred' makes us think of brave, noble and glorious 
old Luther, and it is one of the grandest te deutns that ever rose 
from human hearts and swelled through the aisles and arches of 
the earthly temples of Jehovah. 

"The grand events of the battlefield, the policies of rulers, 
and the laws of legislative assemblies form renowaed epochs in a 
nation's history, but they furnish little knowledge of its inner 
life, or those secret causes which silently and surely formed and 
developed its destiny. If we view only the few transactions 
preserved by the historic muse we will not possess a more accu- 
rate idea of the peculiar characteristics of a nation than we 
would have of its geography and scenery by catching glimpses of 
the grand outlines of its 'country through the hazy curtain of the 
distance. 

" On many pages of recorded history we find some evidence of 
the influence of poetry in the formation of national character. 
The age of Homer was the commencement of Grecian glory. 
His transcendent genius not only gave immortality to his coun- 
try, but created classic literature. His wonderful poems kindled 
those fires of patriotism, freedom and love of glory in his nation's 
heart which in after times shone so brightly in the wisdom of her 
philosophers and law-givers, in the matchless productions of her 
painters and sculptors, in the immortal tragedies, epics and songs 
of her poets, in the indomitable valor of her heroes and in the 
thrilling eloquence of her orators. His magic touch unsealed 
the fountains of Castalia and Hippocrene and made all the hills 
and vales of Greece the homes of the gods and the haunts of the 
Muses. Who can ever think of Greece, and forget the mighty 
bard who breathed the inspirations of genius into her national 
life ? Her political power has passed away, her magnificent tem- 
ples are now in ruins, the remnants of her art treasures are scat- 
tered over the civilized world, and the blood of the heroes of 
Marathon now flows in the veins of degenerate sons. The mourn- 
ful JEgean among green isles and on rocky shores is ever mur- 
muring a lament for the departed glory of old Hellas, but still 
the light of her poetry is as immortal as her starry skies and 
golden sunshine, and lingers around that classic land and makes 
it a sacred shrine to every lover of freedom, art and letters. 

"I will devote but a few moments in considering the history of 
the once proud mistress of the world and her nobly gifted sons 
of song. She drank deeply of the blood of carnage, revelled 
long amidst the spoils of conquest, and for centuries the great 
throbbings of her passionate heart were felt throughout the 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 115 

grandest empire of the ancient world. Her Catos, Scipios and 
Caesars are gone. Her Emperors who wielded an iron sceptre 
over the world are dust and ashes. Not one stone of the capitol 
is left upon another. The Coliseum is still a grand and glorious 
ruin. Where once sounded the eloquence of the Forum and 
Senate Chamber is now heard the plaintive cry of the beggar; 
and the Campus Martins where once victorious legions trod in 
the martial pomp and pride of the triumph, is now covered with 
the homes of poverty and the dens of infamy and crime. But 
her poets still live and will live forever. In their day they shed 
an immortal glory upon their country which survived her costly 
palaces, stately temples and imperial power, and sent gleams of 
intellectual light over the whelming deluge of Vandal invasion, 
and materially assisted in kindling the splendid dawn of the 
renaisance day. During the night time of the Middle Ages the 
voice of song never became silent, but cheered the heart and 
elevated the mind of ignorant, superstitious and oppressed 
humanity in the nations of Western Europe. 

"When we turn to the pages of English history to study the 
causes which produced the intellectual development and advance- 
ment of our own ancestors, we find that Chaucer, Spenser, 
Shakespeare and Milton led the vanguard of progress and were 
amongst the greatest benefactors of their race. The influence 
which they exerted will last as long as the English language is 
spoken, and will be as widespread as the rich beneficences of 
English institutions and literature." 

Judge Dick is a Ruling Elder in the Presbyterian 
Church and for many years he has been teacher and 
Superintendent in Sunday-school. Temperate and studi- 
ous habits; patient and diligent attention to business; 
always trying to do his best; a high sense of the obliga- 
tions of honor, morality and duty; kindly sympathies 
and a conscientious regard for the rights and feelings of 
his fellow-men, are the sources of his success in life." 



116 SKETCHES OF 

Hon. JOH]^ a. GILMER, 

OF GREENSBORO. 

Judge Gilmer was born in April, 1838, the son of that 
popular and distinguished Congressman from North Car- 
olina at the breaking out of the war between the States, 
the late Hon. John A. Gilmer. He was graduated with 
distinction at the University of North Carolina in 1858, 
and read law at the University of Virginia. He was a 
Second Lieutenant of the Guilford Grays when the war 
began, and with that company entered the service in 
April, 1861. He was made Adjutant of the 27th N. C. 
Infantry upon its organization, the Guilford Grays being 
Company B of that regiment. He was soon afterwards 
elected Major and commanded at the Newberne fight in 
1862. In 1863 he was promoted Colonel, and commanded 
thatspl<|ndid regiment until he was so severely wounded 
at Bristow Station as to render him unfit for field service. 
He served with conspicuous gallantry and won the con- 
fidence and affection of his men. No one illustrated 
more than he the valor, fortitude, constancy and pluck 
of the Tar Heel soldier; to which he united care for his 
men and a watchful solicitude for their comfort and wel- 
fare. Four years ago his old comrades from the centre 
to the seashore were enthusiastic in their demands for 
his nomination for Governor, and, but for his request 
that his name should not be put before the convention, 
his friends, sanguine of his nomination, would not have 
withheld it. 

Judge Gilmer was admitted to the bar in 1865, and 
soon had a leading and lucrative practice, though sev- 
eral times, for months at a time, he was bed-ridden from 
the effects of his wounds received at Bristow, from one of 
which attacks he had but recently recovered when he 
was appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the death of 
Judge Kerr. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 117 

Judge Gilmer, as a candidate for the House of Repre- 
seutatives in 1868, was one of the forlorn hope selected to 
battle with Canby and the then recently enfranchised 
blacks, led by carpet-baggers and organized in the Loyal 
League. The votes were counted (so said) at Charleston, 
S. C, by the subordinates of the military satrap then 
reigning, and he was declared not elected. In 1870 he 
w^as elected Senator from Alamance and Guilford, and 
received a majority in each county, though at the time 
" Kirk's cut-throats" held undisputed sway in Alamance. 
He made a model Senator, conservative in his action, 
firmly fixed in principle and progressive in his ideas. 
But few members were more useful than he during his 
kgislative term. In 1875 he was a candidate for the Con- 
vention and came within a few votes of election, though 
the "homestead scare" which '^foi" the Convention was 
used for all it was worth against him. He has been twice 
nominated for Judge and elected both times. He has 
held the courts in every county in the State, and his con- 
scientious discharge of the duties of his office has won 
the respect and confidence of the people; and his unaf- 
fected politeness, his urbanity and frankness have made 
him a host of personal friends wherever he has been. 

His acquaintance with the people of all sections is ex- 
tensive, and his knowledge of the wants and needs of 
every section is second to that of no man within our bor- 
ders. He has given attention to matters of public inter- 
est that aff'ect the welfare of the people, and his compre- 
hensive mind has been able to grasp their details and 
fully understand them. 

Patriotic and full of love for North Carolina, which he 
has shown in his devotion upon the battle-field as well 
as in every act of his life, he is in sympathy with every 
effort made for her advancement and for ameliorating 
the condition of her people. To lighten their burdens, to 
promote their welfare, to advance their interests, he would 
bring into requisition all the resources of his practical 
statesmanship, and he would wisely plan to promote 



118 SKETCHES OF 

those purposes which tend to lifting the people up and 
to strengthening the foundations of their prosperity and 
material welfare. In his hands the reins of power would 
be used to develop the resources of the State and to so 
guide public affairs that every section would be invig- 
orated with new life and a new strength in the work of 
development. 

In manner he is open, hearty and frank, and he so de- 
ports himself as to win the esteem and popular approval 
of all classes of citizens. No one makes a better impres-. 
sion in a campaign than John Gilmer. He is so honest 
and sincere, so kindly and sympathetic in his nature, 
that the people turn to him as their champion and recog- 
nize in him their friend. 

He is an excellent "campaigner," effective on the 
stump, a fine debater, pointed in argument, clear in state- 
ment, strong, virile and convincing. — Raleigh News and 
Observer. 



HoT^. FABIUS HAYWOOD BUSBEE, 

OF RALEIGH. 

" Born March 4th, 1848, and has at this writing just 
turned his thirty-eighth year. His paternal grandfather, 
Johnston Busbee, was a successful Wake county farmer in 
his day, and was for a long time Chairman of the County 
Courts, then in vogue. His maternal grandfather was 
the Hon. James F. Taylor, at the time of his death 
Attorney- General of North Carolina. The parents of 
the subject of our sketch were Perrin and Anne Busbee. 
The father was a lawyer of acknowledged ability, and as 
a forceful and eloquent speaker he ranked high in the 
Democratic party. At his death in 1853 he was Repor- 
ter of the Supreme Court, and his Reports are familiar to 
every well informed North Carolinian. 

Mr. Busbee, of whom we now write, attended the justly 
distinguished Lovejoy Academy at Raleigh, and after- 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 119 

wards entered the University of North Carolina, from 
which institution he was graduated in 1868. But prior 
to this, in February, 1865, he enlisted in the Confederate 
Army, becoming a private in the 3d Regiment Junior 
Reserves, or 71st North Carolina, Hoke's Division. He 
was only a lad of sixteen, but something about him won 
for him the favor of his comrades-at-arms, and he was 
elected to a lieutenancy in his regiment. He was in the 
battles below Kinston and Bentonville. 

In June, 1868, he was examined by the Supreme Court, 
but license to practice law was withheld until the follow- 
ing January, owing to his not being of age. From the 
latter month in '69 he has continued to practice law, and 
since 1870 he has been associated with his brother, C. M. 
Busbee, Esq., in a law partnership in the city of Raleigh. 
Mr. Busbee was City Attorney for Raleigh from 1875 
until 1884, when he declined re-election on account of 
his increasing practice. In the campaigns of 1868, '70, 
'71 and '72 he made his reputation as a political can- 
vasser, and a good one it was. He took a still more ac- 
tive part in the campaigns of 1876, '80, '82 and '84. In 
the first mentioned of these latter years he stood before 
the people as elector for the Fourth District, and again 
in 1880 he was made elector for the State at Large, lead- 
ing the State ticket. In 1878 he was voted for for Solic- 
itor in the Negro District. In 1882 he received his party 
nomination for the House of Representatives from Wake 
county, but naturally enough his Republican competitor 
was elected over him. 

" In October last, Mr. Busbee was appointed by Presi- 
dent Cleveland United States Attorney for the Eastern 
District of North Carolina. Mr. Busbee has received 
many marks of distinction from the Masons of North 
Carolina, of which order he has been a prominent figure 
for many years. He was Deputy Grand Master in 1883 
and '84, and was chosen Grand Master in 1885 and 1886. 

Mr. Busbee, aside from his merits as a lawyer and an 
eloquent and forceful speaker, is a brilliant scholar in 
literature. He has been honored with the degree of Mas- 



120 SKETCHES OF 

ter of Arts, conferred upon him by the University of 
North Carolina. Princeton College, N. J., as well as 
Trinity College, at Hartford, Conn., have paid him like 
compliments. He is at present one of the Trustees of the 
North Carolina University. 

But it is as a lawyer that Mr. Busbee stands highest. 
He has been remarkably successful in the termination of 
his cases, and his clientage includes some of the leading 
firms and most prominent individuals in our State. He 
has appeared before the United States Supreme Court, 
^before our State Legislature, and in the memorable con- 
tested election of Congressman Skinner, he argued the 
latter's case, which terminated in the seating of Mr. Skin- 
ner." — Winston Sentinel. 



Hon. WILLIAM T. DOETCH, 

OF GOLDSBORO, 

Was born in Nash county, August 23d, 1824. Educa- 
ted at Bingham School. At tiie age of 17 commenced 
the study of law with the late Hon. B. F. Moore. Obtained 
County Court license at 19 years of age; Superior Court 
license at 20. Elected County Attorney of Nash at 20 
years of age, and re-elected. Moved to Goldsboro in 
1849. Elected County Attorney of Wayne. Elected to 
the Legislature from Wayne in 1852, and continuously 
(except one session) until 1861. Elected Speaker of the 
House in 1860. Elected to the Confederate Senate in 
1861, and served in that body during the war. Has held 
no office since the close of the war until 1879. He served 
in the Senate then, and again in 1881. Has devoted his 
attention since the close of the war to farming and the 
practice of law, doing probably the largest and most 
lucrative practice in tlie State. Tendered the office of 
Judge of the Superior Court by Governor Ellis in 1859, 
and declined. He is chairman of the Judiciary com- 
mittee, and as such, had many arduous duties to perform 
during the present session. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 121 

When the Code Commission was established, in 1881, 
he was made one of the three members of that Commis- 
sion, whose duty it was to revise and consolidate all the 
laws of the State and so arrange them that they could 
be published in convenient shape. In this arduous work 
he spent much time, and the general approval which the 
Code has met at the hands of this Legislature shows that 
he and the other Commissioners, Messrs. John Manning 
and John S. Henderson, did their work well. He very 
seldom makes a speech in the Senate, but when he does 
speak, he always receives tlie attention of all within the 
range of his voice, for his arguments are always pointed 
and conclusive, and the force of which is always shown 
when the vote is taken. He is a man of fine personal 
appearance, excellent education, and of superior legal 
ability. These, combined with his other good qualities 
of head and heart, have won for him the esteem of all 
the members, and given him quite an enviable influ- 
ence in the Senate Chamber. — Legislative Biographical 
Sketch Book. 1888. 



Hoj^. JAS. C. MacEAE, 

OF FAYETTEVILLE. 

Judge MacRae was born in Fayetteville in 1838. His 
father jvas John MacRae, who was for many years as his 
father had been before him, Postmaster of Fayetteville. 
His mother was Mary Shackelford, of Marion, S. C. 
Judge MacRae was sent to school to Donaldson Academy 
in his native place until lie was 15 years old. He taught 
school a term and clerked in a store for a year or so. He 
taught school again in Brunswick Co., N. C, and in Horry 
county, S. C, until he was old enough to get his license to 
practice law. Having read law while teaching school, 
he obtained license to practice it in August, 1859, and 
June, 1860. While reading for his Superior Court license 



122 SKETCHES OF 

he was with his brother, D. K. MacRae, at New Berne. 
He subsequently located at Fayetteville. He entered 
the war as private in Company H, 1st N. C. Volunteers, 
was afterward Adjutant of the 5th N. C. State Troops. 
He commanded a battalion in Western North Carolina 
as Major, and was Assistant Adjutant General for Gen. 
Baker in the Eastern District of North Carolina until 
the close of the war. He was a member of the Legisla- 
ture of 1874-75. 

He is an active and earnest advocate of prohibitioa 
and was President of the State Prohibition Convention 
which met in Raleigh in 1881. He was appointed Judge 
to fill Judge Bennett's unexpired term in July, 1882, and 
elected in the fall of the same year Judge of the 4th 
(afterwards changed to the 7th) Judicial District, which 
place he now holds. 

He was married in 1867 to Miss Hinsdale, of Fayette- 
ville. 

As a Judge he has few equals. 



Hon. WALTER CLARK, 

OF RALEIGH. 

This gentleman has done much to instill into our 
courts business principles, and is deservedly popular. 

He was born in Halifax county. North Carolina, 19th 
August, 1846. Was at Col. Tew's Military Academy at 
Hillsboro on the breaking out of the war, and immedi- 
ately, in the spring of 1861, at fourteen years of age, en- 
tered the army as Drill master in Pettigrew's Regiment, 
22d North Carolina, and went with it to Richmond and 
to Evansport, on the Potomac. The next year he was ap- 
pointed Adjutant of the 35th North Carolina, commanded 
by Colonel (now Senator) M. W. Ransom, and served in 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 123 

the first Maryland campaign, being at the capture of 
Harper's Ferry, at Sharpsburg and Fredericksburg. At 
the latter battle his regiment was one of those which 
rolled back the repeated attacks of the enemy in his des- 
perate assaults on Marye's heights. He was mentioned 
for gallantry in both battles. The brigade returned in 
the spring of 1863 to North Carolina to recruit. Having 
kept up his studies in camp, and carried his Homer and 
Virgil in his campaigns, he resigned and entered the 
University of North Carolina in July, 1863, joining the 
senior class. Graduated June 2d, 1864, with first honor. 
W. A. Guthrie, and Judge Van Wyck, of New York, were 
among his classmates. The next day after graduation he 
re-entered the army as Major of the 6th Battalion of Ju- 
nior Reserves, and a few days later (then 17 years of age) 
was made Lieutenant-Colonel of 69th N. C Regiment, at- 
tached to Hoke's Division. He fought at Southwest 
Creek (near Kinston) and at Bentonsville. Surrendered 
and paroled with the rest of Johnston's army at High 
Point, N. C, 2d May, 1865. Studied law under Judge 
Battle, at a law oflSce in Wall street, N. Y., and at Colum- 
bia Law College, Washington, D. C. Obtained license to 
practice in January, 1868. Located first at Scotland 
Neck, N. C, and then removed to Halifax, N. C, as a 
partner with J. M. Mullen (late State Senator) in law firm 
of Clark & Mullen. During this time he was twice a 
candidate for the Legislature, and though the usual Re- 
publican majority in Halifax county was then 2,500, was 
defeated by a small vote. In January, 1874, married the 
only daughter of. Hon. W. A. Graham, and removed to 
Raleigh, where he has since resided. 

In 1881 he was sent as the lay delegate for North Caro- 
lina to the Methodist Ecumenical Council in London, 
and profited by the occasion to travel extensively in Eu- 
rope. In April, 1885, appointed by Governor Scales 
Judge of the Superior Court; renominated by acclama- 
tion by the Convention at Smithfield in August, 1886^ 
and elected last November, leading the rest of the Supe- 



124 SKETCHES OF 

rior Court ticket. He is the author of *' Overruled Cases," 
" Laws for Business Men," and Clark's '^ Annotated Code 
of Civil Procedure." 

In 1871 he wrote, while on a tour to California and the 
West, a series of articles, " From Ocean to Ocean," which 
attracted favorable attention from the press and public. 



Ho]^. AV. J. MONTGOMERY, 

OF CONCORD, 

Was born in Montgomery county, August 14th, 1834, 
was educated at Chapel Hill and was graduated June, 
1855. He taught school in 1856 and in 1857-58; read 
law with Judge Pearson, obtained his County Court 
license in 1857 and Superior Court license in 1858. He 
located in Stanly county and practiced till 1861, when 
he entered the army as Captain and was afterward pro- 
moted to Major and then to Lieutenant Colonel. In 1862 
he resigned the army and accepted the position of Solici- 
tor of Stanly county and continued in that oflSce until 
county courts were abolished. In 1868 he moved to 
Concord, Cabarrus county; was nominated by the Demo- 
crats for Solicitor of the 6th Judicial District of North 
Carolina in 1874 and was elected. He was re-elected in 
1878 and held the office till January, 18^3. During his 
terms as Solicitor he kept up and largely increased his 
civil practice. 

He was appointed Judge of the 8th Judicial District 
by Gov. Scales in June, 1885, was re-nominated and re- 
elected to the same position in 1886. He has never had 
any political aspirations and was never a candidate for a 
political office. He has confined himself exclusively to 
his profession. He has never traded or speculated and 
is very well off. 

He is a good jurist, a man of fine practical sense, dig- 
nified, and a true christian. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 125 

HoTT. EDWIN T. BOYKm, 

^ CLINTON, SAMPSON COUNTY, N. C, 

Was born at Clinton the 27th of December, 1854. His 
parents were in very moderate circumstances. His father 
died when he was a youth, after which his mother moved 
to Trinity College. Here he met Dr. Craven, who became 
attached to him and helped him to an education. Edwin 
paid for his tuition by ringing the bell and sweeping 
out the College, and he did that service even through his 
senior year. His habits were studious and he took a 
high stand as a scholar, though he could not dress quite 
as well as bis classmates. He was a member of the 
Columbian Society and paid his fees by cleaning the hall, 
etc. He graduated in 1874 in one of the most successful 
classes that ever graduated from Trinity College. Among 
them were: B. F. Long, the able Solicitor of the 8th 
Judicial District, J. M. Stockhard, a very rich manufac- 
turer of Rhode Island, Hon. Lee S. Overman, a distin- 
guished and honored member of the Legislature, John 
Cooper, of Georgia, Secretary and Treasurer of the Pacific 
Railroad Company, Rev. W. W. Staley, a prominent 
clergyman of Virginia, N. C. English, Professor at Trinity 
College, Rev. N. M. Jurney, of the Methodist Conference, 
and J. C. Black, Senator from Moore county, and others. 

Since Mr. Boykin's admission to the bar he has enjoyed 
a large practice. He has been twice elected Mayor of 
Clinton, and has served three terras as County Chairman 
of the Democratic Executive Committee. In 1881, he 
was elected to the House of Representatives from Samp- 
son, and in 1883 elected to the Senate. He was re-elected 
to the Senate in 1885 and was honored with the oflBce of 
President of that body. 

He was married to Miss Katie G. Bizzell, December 
28th, 1876. His wife died in 1885, leaving several chil- 
dren. 



126 SKETCHES OF • 

He was appointed Judge of the Superior Court in 1885 
to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge McKoy, 
and was elected to the same office in 1886. As a Judge 
he is noted for his impartiality, his quick discernment 
and his dignified bearing. Though the junior Judge of 
the bench, he fills his office with great ability and perfect 
satisfaction to the people. He is one of the most promis- 
ing men in the State. 



Hon. RALPH P. BUXTON, 

OF FAYETTEVILLE, 

Was born in Washington, Beaufort county, N. C, on 
September 22d, 1826. He was the youngest son of Rev. 
Jarvis B. Buxton, an Episcopal minister, who was called 
to take charge of St. John's Church, Fayetteville, N. C, 
in 1831, and who remained Rector of that church until 
his death in 1851. 

R. P. Buxton was partly educated at College Point near 
Flushing, N. Y., at an Institution conducted by Rev. Dr. 
William A. Mohlenburg. In 1843, he joined the junior 
class of the University of North Carolina, and graduated 
in June, 1845. After teaching school for a year he read 
law under Hon. John H. Bryan, of Raleigh, N. C, and 
obtained his County and Superior Court licenses in 1848 
and 1849, and practised law at Fayetteville, N. C, where 
he now resides. 

In politics, he was an ardent Whig and a great admi- 
rer of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. 

In 1856 he was a delegate to the National Convention 
at Philadelphia, which nominated Fillmore and Donel- 
son. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 127 

He was Mayor of Fayetteville in 1857. 

In 1861 he was an anti-secession candidate for the 
State Convention, but was defeated. 

In 1863 he was elected by the Legislature, State Solici- 
tor for the circuit in which he lived. This position he 
held until the close of the civil war. 

In 1865 he was elected a member of the State Consti- 
tutional Convention. While a member of this body he 
introduced an ordinance to abolish imprisonment for 
debt and advocated the measure in a published speech 
which was widely circulated. The ordinance failed to 
pass then, but has since been incorporated in the State 
Constitution. 

Under the Provisional Government established in 
North Carolina by President Johnson, Mr. Buxton was 
appointed one of the Judges by Governor Holden, in 
1865, and was elected that same year by the Legislature 
one of the Judges of the Superior Court. In 1868, under 
Reconstruction Acts, he was elected by the people at 
large to fill the same position, and in 1874 he was re- 
elected by the voters of the 5th Judicial District. 

In politics, since the war, Judge Buxton has been a 
warm and consistent Republican. In 1879, he received 
the complimentary vote of the Republican members of 
the Legislature for U. S. Senator. 

In 1880, he was nominated for Governor by the Repub- 
lican State Convention. He immediately resigned his 
seat on the bench, and made a canvass of the State, but 
was defeated by Governor Jarvis. Since that time he 
has been engaged in the active practice of the law\ 

In the Judicial election of 1886, his name was run 
against his wishes, by a portion of the Republican party 
for the office of Chief Justice; he received a handsome 
vote, but was defeated by the present Chief Justice Smith. 

Judge Buxton has served several terms as one of the 
Trustees of the University, and is a devoted son of his 
Alma Mater. 

He received the rite of confirmation in the Episcopa- 



128 SKETCHES OF 

lian Church in his sixteenth year, and is a Christian by 
hereditary, attachment, education and conviction. He 
has acted as lay reader, vestryman, and member of the 
church councils for many years. 

In 1860 he married Miss Rebecca H. Bledsoe, of Ral- 
eigh, N. C. They have no children. 



Ho^. JOHN MANNING, 

OF CHAPEL HILL, 

Was born at Edenton, July 30th, 1830. His father 
was Capt. John Manning, of the U. S. Navy. On the 
passage of the ordinance of secession, Capt. Manning 
resigned his position in the Navy and tendered his ser- 
vices to his native State. He was commissioned a Com- 
mander of the Navy of North Carolina, but in a short 
time his health gave way and he resigned his commis- 
sion and resided at Pittsboro, N. C, where he died. 

The subject of this sketch received his primary train- 
ing at the Eden ton Academy and at the Norfolk, Vir- 
ginia, Military Academy. He graduated from the Uni- 
versity in 1850. 

In September, 1850, he accompanied his father to South 
America; returned in July, 1851; read law and was 
licensed by the Supreme Court fn June, 1853, and in 1854 
settled in Pittsboro. 

He was married in 1856 to Miss Louisa J. Hall, eldest 
daughter of Dr. Hall, of Pittsboro, and granddaughter 
of Judge John Hall, late of the Supreme Court. 

He was a delegate to the Convention of 1861 ; volun- 
teered in the first company that went to the war from 
Chatham ; was elected First Lieutenant and appointed 
Adjutant of the 15th Regiment of Volunteers. In Octo- 
ber, 1861, he was nominated by Judge Biggs and 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 129 

appointed by President Davis, Receiver of the Confeder- 
ate States, and resigned his commission in the army. 
He was opposed to the secession of the State and in the 
Convention of 1861 he voted to substitute Judge Bad- 
ger's ordinance for the ordinance of secession, and fail- 
ing in that and seeing that war was inevitable, he voted 
to submit the ordinance of secession to the State for rati- 
fication. 

In 1870 he was elected to the 41st Congress as a Demo- 
crat from the 4th District. 

He was elected to the Constitutional Convention of 
1875, and was Chairman of the Committee on Privileges 
and Elections. 

In 1880 he was a member of the General Assembly 
and was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He was 
elected by the General Assembly one of the Commis- 
sioners to revise the Statute laws of the State. In 1881 
he was chosen Professor of Law in the University. 

The degree of LL. D. was conferred on him in 1882 
by the University. 



Hon. D. a. BARNES, 

OF MURFREESBORO. 

Native of Northampton county. Son of Collin W. and 
Louisa Barnes. His father was a farmer and a promi- 
nent citizen. 

The subject of this sketch attended Jackson Male Acad- 
emy, and graduated at the University in 1840. He read 
law in Raleigh under Governor Iredell and Judge Wm. 
H. Battle ; obtained license and located in Jackson in 1842. 
He has represented Northampton county three times in 
the Legislature; was Presidential Elector on the Scott 
and Graham ticket; was a member of the State Couven- 
9 



130 SKETCHES OF 

tion of 1861 ; served as Aid-de-Camp to Governor Vance 
during the war with the rank of Colonel. 
^^"*In 1865 he was elected by the Legislature Judge of the 
Superior Courts, and remained in that office until re- 
moved under the Reconstruction Acts of Congress. He 
returned to the practice of the law, again locating in 
Jackson. 

In June, 1872, he was married to Miss Bettie Vaughan, 
of Murfreesboro, and in 1875 removed to that town, where 
he now resides. 

He is now Presiding Justice of the Superior Court of 
Hertford county. 



Ho^-. GEOKGE HOWARD, 

OF TARBORO. 

Born September 22d, 1829, at Tarboro. His father, 
'George Howard, was a native of Baltimore, Maryland. 
His mother was a native of Caroline county, V^irginia. 

He studied law under Hon. W. H. Battle and Hon. S. 
F. Phillips, and obtained County Court license in June, 
1850, and Superior Court license in June, 1851. 

During 1852 he edited the Tarboro Southerner. In No- 
vember of the same year was elected County Solicitor for 
Greene county; was elected Reading Clerk of the House 
of Commons, sessions of 1854-'55, 1856-7 and 1858-'9. 

In 1855 he was elected first County Solicitor for Wilson 
county. He was appointed Judge of the Superior Court 
in 1859, and at the session of 1860-1 of the Legislature 
he was elected for life. 

While on the circuit he was elected to represent Edge- 
combe in the Convention of 1861 and signed the Ordi- 
nance of Secession. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 131 

December 3, 1861, be was married to Miss Anna R. 
Stamps, of Milton, N. C. 

At the close of the war he was elected a member of the 
Convention of 1865. 

He was Senator from Edgecombe in the first Legisla- 
ture after the war. 

In 1878 he was strongly supported for a seat on the 
Supreme Court bench 

He is an able lawyer and a successful business man. 



Hon. KERR CRAIGE, 

« 

OF SALISBURY. 

According to Dr. Rumple's History of Rowan county, 
the ancestors of the subject of this sketch ''came direct 
from Scotland, without stopping, as most of the families 
did, in the Northern States. They were adherents of Prince 
Charles in his efforts to regain the throne of his fathers, 
and after the fatal battle of Culloden, April 16th, 1746, 
they deemed it expedient to seek safety in America. 

"The name of Craig in ttie Scottish dialect signifies a 
sharp, high rock or crag, and was p)robably given to the 
family, or assumed by them, because their hall or castle 
was situated upon some high rock, thus securing safety 
to life and property in the days of violence and lawless- 
ness." 

A full account of the Craige family is given in Dr. 
Rumple's History, and in Col. Wheeler's Sketches, Vol. 
1, page 80, mention is made of David Craige of the same 
family, as a Lieutenant in Capt. Wm. Temple Cole's com- 
pany in 1776, and who " was distinguished for his bravery 
and patriotic daring." 

Burton Craige, the father of the subject of this sketch, 
was born in Rowan county, March 13th, 1811. He 



132 SKETCHES OF 

graduated from the State University in 1829 ; for several 
years he edited the Western Carolinian ; studied law under 
David F. Caldwell, and was licensed in 1832. The same 
year he was elected to the Legislature from the borough 
of Salisbury. In 1834, after the abolition of the borough 
system, he was elected to the Assembly by Rowan county. 
In 1836 he was married to Miss Elizabeth P. Irwin, great- 
granddaughter of General Matthew Lock, of Rowan. 
He was elected to Congress in 1853, and re-elected in 
1855-'57 and '59. He was a member of the Convention 
of 1861, and offered the ordinance of secession which 
was adopted. By that Convention he was chosen a mem- 
ber of the Confederate Congress. He died in Concord, 
where he was attending Court, December 30th, 1875. 
His character is thus described by Dr. Rumple: "He 
possessed those qualities that endeared him to the people — 
plainness of speech, simplicity of ma.nners, and famili- 
arity in intercourse, without the semblance of condescen- 
sion. He remembered the names and the faces of people, 
and the humblest man whom Mr. Craigehad ever known 
would approach him with perfect assurance of recogni- 
tion and cordial greeting." 

The subject of this sketch was born in Catawba county, 
March 14th, 1843. He removed to Rowan county in 
1852. His education was received at Catawba College 
and at the University of North Carolina. 

At the age of eighteen he enlisted as a private for 
three years in the army, in the 1st North Carolina Cav- 
alry, which formed a part of Hampton's, afterwards 
Gordon's, Brigade of the army of Northern Virginia. He 
was promoted to Lieutenant and Captain. He was ten- 
dered the office of Adjutant of his Regiment by Colonel 
Thos. Ruffin, who was killed a few days thereafter and 
before Mr. Craige could accept the office. He was then 
appointed Aid-de-Camp to Gen. J. B. Gordon and served 
in that capacity until Gen. Gordon's death. The 1st N. 
C. Cavalry, in which Mr. Craige served through the war, 
was regarded as the finest in the army. It was almost 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 133 

constantly in action and was distinguished for its dash 
and courage. Mr. Craige was present in all the contests 
of this noted Regiment. 

After the war he studied law under Chief Justice 
Pearson, and was admitted to the bar in June, 1867. He 
was elected Reading Clerk of the House of Representa- 
tives in 1870, and was a member of that body from 
Rowan county in 1872. 

He was married November 12th, 1 873, to Miss Josephine 
Branch, daughter of Gen. L. O'B. Branch, of Raleigh. 
Gen. Branch was a very brave soldier and a wise and 
patriotic statesman. His heroism as a soldier made him 
the subject of a complimentary letter from Gen. R. E. 
Lee. His life and character has been ably portrayed by 
Maj. John Hughes, of New Berne, in an oration delivered 
at Raleigh, May 10th, 1884. 

Mr. Craige has been a Director of the N. C. R. R. Com- 
pany and a Trustee of the University. 

He was nominated by the Democratic party for Con- 
gress in 1884, but was obliged to decline on account of 
ill-health. 

In June, 1887, he was appointed without his solicita- 
tion Collector of Internal Revenue for the 5th N. C. Dis- 
trict, which position he now holds, administering the 
harsh and unpopular laws with as much mildness as is 
compatible with respect for them. There are more dis- 
tilleries in his district than in any other in the United 
States. He has nearly four hundred subordinate officers. 

Since Mr. Craige's admission to the bar, he has con- 
tinually practiced his profession. He has always been 
punctual in his office hours and attended closely to his 
professional duties. He is a close student, and is con- 
sidered by the profession as one of the best Judges of 
law in the State. 

He has a relish for literary and historical works. His 
information is extensive and his taste refined. 

Mr. Craige is very frank, affable and unassuming, and 
in many other respects possesses the admirable traits of 
his father. 



134 SKETCHES OF 

Gen. THEO. F. DAVIDSON, 

OF ASHEVILLE. • 

Born in the county of Haywood the 30th March, 1845. 
On his father's side of the house his ancestors were of the 
Scotch-Irish stock, which settled in Mecklenburg about 
1740. His paternal grandmother was a Vance, her 
father, David Vance, being one of the earliest settlers of 
Buncombe county. His mother was a Howell, of a family 
which came from England and settled in Cabarrus about 
the middle of the 18th century. 

The subject of this sketch was prepared for college by 
the late Colonel Lee, at Asheville. In 1861 he received 
the appointment to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, 
but before entering, the war began and he at once en- 
tered the army, joining the "Buncombe Rifles," the first 
company raised in the trans-mountain portion of the 
State. Afterwards he became a member of Company C, 
89th Regiment, and was Sergeant-Major of the regiment. 

In 1862 he was appointed and commissioned Aid-de- 
Camp on the staff of Brigadier-General R. B. Vance, and 
remained in the Army of the West until the close of the 
war. At the close of the war he returned to Asheville 
and began the study of law under the late Judge Bailey, 
and was admitted to the bar in 1867. He practiced his 
profession in the mountain circuit until elected Attorney- 
General in 1884. 

In 1878 he was State Senator from the 40th District, 
and was chairman of the Committee on Corporations; 
re-elected in 1880, and served as chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Judiciary. 

For three years he served as State Director of the 
Western North Carolina Railroad. He was also one of 
the Directors of the first Board for the Western N. C. 
Asylum at Morganton. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 135 

For nearl}^ two years he was presiding Justice of the 
Inferior Court of Buncombe. 

He was married on the 6th of November, 1886, to Sarah 
Katherine, daughter of A. M. Alexander, of French Broad, 
Buncombe county. His wife died last July. 

He was chairman of the Democratic Executive Com- 
mittee of Buncombe county for eight years ; he was 
chairman of the Democratic Executive Committee of the 
Eighth Congressional District six years. 



Hon. ^Y. T. FAIRCLOTH, 

OF GOLDSBORO, 

Was born January 8, 1829, on Otter Creek', in Edge- 
combe count}^ N. C. His parents were of English de- 
scent, and his father was a farmer, at which business he 
was trained until twenty years of age, receiving only a 
plain neighborhood education, until 1850, when he en- 
tered Wake Forest College, and completed the college 
course in June, 1854. 

He then read law with Chief Justice Pearson, at Rich- 
mond Hill, and obtained his license January 1, 1856. 

He located at Snow Hill, in Greene county, and was 
elected County Solicitor in February following for four 
years. In May, same year, he located at Goldsboro, Wayne 
county, N. C, and practiced law until 1861, when he vol- 
unteered as a private in Company of 2d State Troops, 
commanded by Col. C. C. Tew, and went into the Army 
of Northern Virginia, and r^^mained with it throughout 
the war, and was present on duty at the surrender at Ap- 
pomattox Court House in the spring of 1865, and at that 
time held the rank of Captain of Cavalry. 

He then resumed the law practice at Goldsboro. 

Id that summer he was elected a delegate from Wayne 



136 SKETCHES OF 

county to the Convention called by the Provisional Gov- 
ernor, which convened October 2d, 1865, and adjourned 
" without day" June 25th, 1866. 

In the fall of 1865 he was elected a member of the Leg- 
islature from Wayne county, which convened November 
27th, 1865, and adjourned siyie die March 12th, 1866. 
During this session of the Legislature he was elected So- 
licitor of the Superior Courts for the 3d Judicial District, 
and held the office until reconstruction in 1868. He 
then pursued his profession (law) steadily until the sum- 
mer of 1875, when he was elected a delegate from his 
county to the State Constitutional Convention, which 
convened at Raleigh September 6th, 1875, and adjourned 
sine die October 11th, 1875. 

^^~ In November, 1875, he was appointed one of the Jus- 
tices of the Supreme Court of North Carolina by Governor 
C. H. Brogdeo, and held the office until the term of the 
Court expired in the fall of 1878, since which time he has 
continued the practice of law at Goldsboro. 

He was married January 10, 1869, to a daughter of the 
late Council Wooten, at Mosely Hall (now LaGrange), in 
Lenoir county, N. C. 

He has held the position of Director on the Wilming^ 
ton and Weldon Railroad; also, on the Atlantic and 
North Carolina Railroad. 



Hon. DANIEL L. RUSSELL, 

OF WILMINGTON. 

Son of Daniel L. Russell, of Brunswick, and Caroline, 
daughter of David W. Sanders, of Onslow county; born 
August 7th, 1845; educated at Bingham's School and 
Chapel Hill. He was married to Miss Sarah Amanda 
Sanders, daughter of Isaac N. Sanders, of Onslow county ; 



PROMINENT LIVING NOJRTH CAROLINIANS. 137 

began the practice of law in 1866. He was elected to 
the Legislature from Brunswick county in August, 1864, 
and again in November, 1865, serving both terms before 
he was of age. 

In 1868 he was elected by the State at large, Judge of 
the Superior Courts and served until August, 1874. He 
was elected in 1871 to the Constitutional Convention, 
which being voted down by the people was not held. He 
was elected to the Legislature from Brunswick in 1876, 
and received the vote of his party for Speaker of the 
House. 

In 1878 he was elected to Congress; he was not a can- 
didate for re-election. 



Hon. W. H. bailey, 

OF MECKLENBURG, 

Is the son of the late Hon. J. L. Bailey and P. E. 
Bailey, and was born on Little River, in Pasquotank 
county, on the 22d of January, 1881 ; received his edu- 
cation at the Elder Bingham's School and Caldwell Insti- 
tute at Hillsboro; received his license to practice law in 
the County and Superior Courts in 1851 ; married Annie 
C. Howerton on the 20th day of October, 1852. In 
December, 1856, he was appointed Attorney-General to 
fill an unexpired term. On the 3lst day of August, 
1870, he was appointed Code Commissioner and remained 
in office until the Commission was abolished. 

In 1882 he was elected to represent Mecklenburg in 
the House of Representatives and was appointed Chair- 
man of the Judiciary C'ommittee. In 1861 he enlisted 
as a private in the " Bethel" regiment, was engaged in 
the battle of Bethel Church, was afterwards made Judge 
Advocate. 



138 SKETCHES OF 

He has been the Master of two masonic lodges, namely : 
Eagle No. 71 and Fulton No. 99. 

He is justly proud of his successes at the bar, espe- 
cially on the criminal side, and claims the credit of hav- 
ing aided to broaden the principles of that branch of 
jurisprudence, notably in the cause celebre of Ingold, also 
Garrett, Blackwelder, in banc, and the cases of Locke, Far- 
rington, Pethel and Bencini, on the Circuit. 

Mr. Bailey is the author of the Fifth N. C. Digest and 
a treatise on the Onus Probandi, and besides, has from 
time to time contributed to the current legal and masonic 
and other literature of the day. 

He is now preparing a treatise on the conflict of Judi- 
cial Decisions. 

He is a humorist and particularly enjoys telling about 
his playing the banjo and singing a song in Court. 

In politics he nearly always votes with the Democracy, 
but is very liberal and independent. 

His chief amusement is a game of whist and he can 
play that game well. 

He received the degree of LL. D. in 1885. 



THOMAS NORFLEET HILL, 

|0F HALIFAX, 

Was born March 12th, 1838, in the Scotland Neck sec- 
tion of Halifax county, about fourteen miles from the 
town of Halifax. His father was Whitmel J. Hill, his 
mother Lovinia B. Hill. 

He received his preparatory education partly at the 
male school in Warrenton, N. C, but chiefly at Vine Hill 
Academy, in Scotland Neck, conducted by R. L. Smith. 

He entered the freshman class at the University of 
North Carolina in June, 1853, graduated June, 1857. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 139 

He studied law under Chief Justice Pearson, in the 
years 1858 and 1859. 

He was licensed to practice in the County Courts in 
December, 1858, and in the Superior Courts in Decem- 
ber, 1859. 

Early in 1860 he commenced practicing at Halifax, 
N. C. In June of that year he moved to Scotland Neck. 

On June 4th, 1861, he was married to Miss Eliza 
Evans Hall, of Pittsboro, N. C. She died on October 
24th, 1884. 

In June, 1861, enlisted as a private soldier in Scotland 
Neck Mounted Riflemen and served about one year in the 
army. 

At the May Term, 1862, of Halifax County Court, he 
was elected County Solicitor for the county. 

He returned from the army and held said office till 
February' Term, 1866. Then declined a re-election and 
was appointed Clerk and Master in Equity by Judge 
Fowle. He held that office about one year and resigned. 

In September, 1877, he was elected Chairman of the 
Inferior Court of Halifax county and has held that office 
ever since. 

About January 1st, 1878, he moved to Halifax from 
Scotland Neck. 

He was married a second time on March 1st, 1887, to 
Miss. Mary Amis Long, of Weldon, N. C. He has devo- 
ted himself exclusively to the practice of the law, follow- 
ing no other pursuit. 

He has never been a candidate for popular suffrage, 
but he received a flattering vote for the nomination 
for Supreme Court Judge at the Democratic Convention 
of 1878. 

In politics he was an old-line Whig before the war ; 
opposed secession; but when Lincoln's proclamation 
appeared he favored resistance ; since the war he has 
invariably voted the Democratic ticket. 



140 SKETCHES OF 

I 

Hon. CHARLES PRICE, 

OP SALISBURY, 

Was born in Warren county, 1847; son of J. M. and 
Martha Price. He did not receive a classical education, 
but by his own efforts he has become one of the best of 
lawyers and has as large a practice perhaps as any law- 
yer in the State. He came to the bar in 1868, but did 
not practice until 1877, having been in politics before 
that time. He was Senator for Rowan and Davie in 
1872 and '73 and 73 and '74. He was member from 
Davie in the Convention of 1875. He was Speaker of 
the House in the session of '76-77. 

He was in the Confederate army one year as Captain 
in the First Regiment Junior Reserves. 

He is «ow partner of Hon. David Schenck and his 
assistant as counsel of the R. & D. Railroad. He is also 
counsel for the Charleston, Cincinnati and Chicago Rail- 
road. 

Captain Price is a very handsome, dignified gentleman 
and a first-class lawyer. 



Hon. THOMAS S. KENAN, 

OF RALEIGH. 

Was born on the 12th of February, 1838, near Kenans- 
ville, in Duplin county, and is a son of Hon. Owen R. 
Kenan. His mother was a daughter of Dr. Stephen 
Graham, also of Duplin. After going through the usual 
preparatory course of study at Grove Academy, near 
Kenansville, then under charge of Rev. James M. Sprunt, 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 141 

he went to Wake Forest, and thence to Chapel Hill, 
where he graduated in 1857. 

His legal education was received at Judge Pearson's 
school, receiving his County Court license in December, 
1858, and his Superior Court license in December, 1859. 
He immediately commenced the practice of the law in 
Kenansville and coutined there until April, 1861, when 
he entered the military service of the State as Captain of 
the Duplin Rifles. In March, 1862, he was elected Colo- 
nel of the 43d Regiment North Carolina troops. He was 
also elected Colonel of the 38th Regiment upon its re-or- 
ganization at Goldsboro, but declined this, and remained 
with the 43d. He commanded his regiment until the 
4th of July, 1863, at Gettysburg, where he was wounded, 
and being captured on the retreat, he was sent to John- 
son's Island, and there confined as a prisoner of war 
until March, 1865, when he was released with several 
hundred prisoners of war and returned home just before 
the surrender of the Confederate army. 

He was a member of the Legislature from Duplin dur- 
ing the sessions of 1865-'66 and 1866-'67. In 1868, he 
was a candidate for Congress in the Cape Fear dis- 
trict, but the district was then hopelessly Radical, and 
he made the canvass of it with no other hope than to 
rally the Democratic party and inspire it with confidence 
for future contests. In the same year he married Miss 
Sallie Dortch, daughter of the late Dr. Louis Dortch, of 
Edgecombe county. In June, 1869, he moved to Wilson 
and resumed the practice of law. 

In 1872 he was a delegate to the National Democratic 
Convention held in Baltimore, and in the same year was 
elected Mayor of Wilson, and served as such, after 
repeated re-elections, until 1876, when he was elected 
Attorney- General of the State, to which oflSce he was 
re-elected in 1880 — serving for a period of eight years. 
Not long after his second term expired, the office of 
Supreme Court Clerk became vacant and Mr. Kenan was 
appointed to the office by the Judges of the Court. 



142 SKETCHES OF 

His great-grandfather, James Kenan, was a leader in 
his day and was one of the delegates from Duplin to the 
first general meeting of the deputies of the inhabitants 
of this Colony that met in New Berne the 25th of August, 
1774, at Hillsboro 21st of August, 1775, and at Halifax 
12th of November, 1776. He was State Senator from 
1777 to 1791. His grandfather, Hon. Thomas Kenan, 
represented Duplin county several times in the State 
Senate, and from 1805 to 1811 was a member of the 
United States Congress from his district. His father, 
Hon. Owen R. Kenan, also represented Duplin county a 
number of times in the State Legislature, and his district 
in the first Congress of the Confederate States. 

Mr. Kenan has descended from a truly representative 
family and is himself a representative man. 



Col. JOHN F. HOKE, 

OF LINCOLNTON, 

Was born on the 30th of May, 1820, at Lincolnton, 
Lincoln county, and has lived there all his life. His 
family are of German parentage. He graduated at Chapel 
Hill in 1841, in the class with Rev. Samuel McPheeters, 
Governor Ellis, Frank P. Blair, of Missouri, and others. 
He read law under Governor Swain and with R. M. 
Pearson; was licensed to practice in 1843. 

In 1847 he was appointed Captain in the 12th Regiment 
U. S. Infantry by President Polk, and went to Mexico 
during the same year ; was engaged in several fights with 
the Mexican forces, and was discharged with the regi- 
ment at New Orleans in 1848. 

He was appointed Adjutant-General of North Carolina 
in 1860, and in 1861 he organized and sent to Virginia 
fourteen regiments during the months of May and June. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 143 

In July of that year he was elected Colonel of the 23d 
Regiment N. C. Troops; he carried his regiment to Vir- 
ginia, and reached Manassas on the morning after the 
fight at that place. He remained with his regiment until 
the reorganization of the troops in 1862, when he de- 
clined being a candidate for re-election. In 1863 he was 
elected to the Senate from the counties of Lincoln, Gaston 
and Catawba. Afterwards he commanded a regiment of 
Senior Reserves until the war closed. When stationed 
at Greensboro with his regiment of reserves, he drew a 
novel requisition on the Quarter Master at that Post, and 
one that astonished that efficient and polite official, but 
which conveyed a strong intimation of Col. Hoke's opin- 
ion of the character of the Confederate forces which he 
commanded. 

" Hd. Quarters 2d Regt. Senior Reserves, 
Camp Near Greensboro. 
Major : 

I require for the use of this command six hundred pairs 
of Spectacles and Spectacle Cases ; four hundred Walking 
Canes, and three hundred and fifty bottles of 'Rad way's 
Ready Relief for the cure of rheumatism. 

J. F. HOKE, 
Colonel Commanding.^^ 

This order found its way to Raleigh and to Richmond, 
but was suppressed before reaching the hands of Presi- 
dent Davis, who, it was thought, might raise a row in 
camp for disrespect towards his patriotic soldiers. The 
earnestness of President Davis in the cause might not 
have taken in the humor. 

Before the war Colonel Hoke was repeatedly a member 
of the Legislature, serving in both the Senate and House. 
He is now practicing law successfully at Lincolnton. 



144 SKETCHES OF 

Hon. J. T. MOKEHEAD, 

OF GREENSBORO. 

Born in 1838 at Greensboro, N. C. Son of J. T. More- 
head. He was educated at Rev. Dr. Alex. Wilson's 
school and at the University. He served in the late war 
from April, 1861, until the surrender, in the 27th, 45th 
and 53d regiments, and rose to the rank of Colonel. He 
was wounded at Gettysburg, Fisher's Hill, and at Hare's 
Hill. 

He was elected to the House of Commons in 1866, and 
to the Senate in 1872, where he served as President of 
that body. He was reelected to the Senate in 1874 and 
in 1883. 



WALTER PHARR CALDWELL, Esq., 

OF GREENSBORO. 

The subject of this sketch is the youngest son of Rev. 
Samuel C. Caldwell, and grandson of Rev. David Cald- 
well, D. D., a learned and devout clergyman. 

Walter Pharr Caldwell was born in Mecklenburg county 
in 1823. He received his education at Davidson College, 
and graduated in 1841. He studied law under Chief 
Justice Pearson, and obtained County Court license to 
practice in 1844 ; Superior Court license in 1845. He 
settled in Statesville in the fall of 1845, where his abili- 
ties won the confidence and admiration of the people. In 
November, 1845, he was elected County Solicitor of Ire- 
dell, which ofl&ce he held until 1853, when he was ap- 
pointed Clerk and Master in Equity. He continued in 
the latter office until 1865. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 145 

In 1857 he was married to Miss Nannie L. Weatherly, 
of Greensboro, 

He was elected in 1866 by the Legislature Solicitor of 
the old Sixth District, composed of twelve counties, in- 
cluding Iredell, Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, and others. He 
was re-elected under the Provisional Government of 
General Canb}^, and continued in oflSce until 1874. j. He 
discharged the duties of his office with acceptance toTthe 
people. His reputation as a lawyer is first-class. 

In 1874 he removed to Greensboro and formed a' part- 
nership with L. M. Scott, Esq., and has since resided 
there. 



Ho]>^. HENRY KOLLOCK NASH, 

OF HILLSBORO. 

The subject of this sketch was born in Hillsboro, Jan- 
uary 25th, 1817. He is the second son of the late Chief 
Justice Frederick Nash, and grandson of Abner Nash, 
the second Constitutional Governor of North Carolina. 
His mother was Mary G. Nash, the daughter of Capt. 
Shepard Kollock of the revolutionary army, from Eliza- 
bethtown, N. J. 

Henry K. Nash was the pupil of the late Wm. Bing- 
ham, by whom he was prepared for the State University 
at Chapel Hill, from which he graduated in June, 1836. 

He married in 1838, Miss Mary Simpson, daughter of 
Samuel Simpson, Esq., a prominent merchant of New 
Berne, and in the same year he obtained his license to 
practice law in the courts of the State. 

About the year 1840, the county of Orange, embracing 

at that time the present county of Alamance and a large 

part of what is now Durham county, sent five members 

to the General Assembly of the State, and in the election 

10 



146 SKETCHES OF 

of these members Mr. Nash succeeded in carrying the 
county by a good majority, being the only Whig elected 
out of the five representatives of that party in the con- 
test. 

In the year 1845, at the earnest solicitation of his 
friends he became the candidate of the Whig party for a 
seat in the House of Representatives of the United States, 
his opponent being the Hon. John Daniel, of Halifax. 
The District extended from Guilford to Halifax, inclu- 
sive, and was largely Democratic, but notwithstanding 
this fact, Mr. Nash was defeated only by a small majority 
in the district after having obtained large majorities in 
the counties of Orange, Granville and Halifax. 

A few years after he was again the Whig candidate for 
Congress against the late Hon. A. W. Venable, of Gran- 
ville; the Democratic party was still largely in the 
ascendant and he was again defeated, having consented 
to run, not so much in the hope of success for himself as 
to assist in keeping his party in form for general purposes 
in the State. 

In 1852 he was again the representative of his party 
as Presidential Elector for Scott and Graham, and subse- 
quently participated in the canvass for the secession 
■Convention. 

Since then he has always declined to take any part in 
active political life, except once in the momentous cam- 
paign of 1869, when for the first time he appeared as the 
advocate of the Democratic party, and, in a canvass of 
no personal interest to himself, raised his voice against 
the rule which he regarded as degrading and dangerous 
to the State. In the meanwhile he contented himself 
with the practice of his profession, which he carried on 
until a few years since, when a partial loss of sight com- 
pelled him to abstain from using his eyes. 

He is now living quietly and comfortably with his 
family at the same beautiful home in Hillsboro, where 
he was married nearly fifty years ago. 

He possesses a fine judicial mind. He speaks fluently 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 147 

and uses the most choice and condensed English ; a man 
of amiable and equable disposition, fond of the diver- 
sions of life, and bright in conversation. He is some- 
thing over six feet in height, has rather reddish hair, 
hazel eyes and a high and broad forehead. 



W. H. MALONE, Esq., 

OF ASHEVILLE, 

Was born July 24th, 1832, in Wythe county, Va. His 
father, Theopilus Malone, was a farmer; moved to Mid- 
dle Tennessee in early life, and died there. His mother 
was a native of North Carolina. He was educated at a 
country school; a short time in college, did not take a 
regular course. He married the first time the daughter 
of Col. Norham Easley, of Grainger county, Tennessee; 
the second marriage was to a daughter of Gen.McElroy, 
of Western North Carolina, and a sister-in-law of Gen. 
Robert B. Vance. He obtained license to practice law in 
Tennessee in 1854, and practiced law six or seven years 
in that State ; was for a while a law partner of Col. John 
Baxter, of Knoxville, afterwards United States Judge. 
He obtained license to practice law in North Carolina in 
1865, where he has practiced ever since. 

He was appointed Attorney-General for the 2d Judicial 
District of Tennessee by Gov. Harris in 1860, held the 
office for about two years, when the Federal troops took 
possession of the country. 

He was elected to the Constitutional Convention in 
1861 in the State of Tennessee, but the Convention was 
voted down (it involved the question of secession). 

He had been a Douglas Elector for the Knoxville Dis- 
trict in the Presidential election of 1860. 

He did some military service and was assigned to duty 



148 SKETCHES OP 

in the manufacture of salt at the Virginia Salt Works for 
the State of Tennessee under the supervision of the 
Governor of the State, which he followed until the close 
of the war. 

The results of the war induced him to locate in North 
Carolina immediately after the war. Having first settled 
in Caldwell county, he represented that county in the 
Legislature of North Carolina, lower House, for two 
years, the term beginning on the 3d Monday of Novem- 
ber, 1868. 

He is the author of two law books: "Real Property 
Trials" and "Criminal Briefs," both of which have a 
wide circulation, especially the first book ; the latter has 
only been published for a short time. 

He acted as Clerk to the Congressional Committee on 
Patents for six years, of which committee Hon. R. B. 
Vance was Chairman. 

He was an independent candidate for Congress against 
Thos. D.Johnston, in 1886; was defeated ; there were 
three candidates. He carried Buncombe county and 
several other counties in the District. 

He has been living in Asheville for several years, 
engaged in the practice of law. 



Hon. THOMAS JOHNSON WILSON, 

OP WINSTON, 

Was born in the southern part of Stokes, now Forsyth 
county, December 31st, 1815, His paternal ancestors 
came from Scotland to North Carolina about the year 
1720, and settled in the county of Perquimans. His 
paternal and maternal ancestors were of the Society of 
Friends. He was brought up in the country and labored 
on the farm in the spring and summer until he was 18 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 149 

years of age; his education was mainly in the schools 
taught in the neighborhood and at the Clemmonsville 
Academy. At the age of 19 he taught school for nine 
months near his home. He studied law, principally 
under the direction of the late George C. Mendenhall, of 
Guilford county, and in December, 1840, obtained a 
license from the Supreme Court to practice law. In 1844 
he was elected Solicitor for the county of Stokes, and 
after the division of that county he was elected Solicitor 
for Forsyth county and subsequently to the same oflSce 
for the county of Davidson for 12 years. 

In May, 1847, he married Miss Julia E. Lindsay, of 
Guilford county, by whom he has three children. 

In February, 1861, he was elected to the proposed State 
Convention, which by a large majority was voted down 
by the people, and in that ele'ction he voted with the 
majority. 

In May, 1861, he was elected a delegate from Forsyth 
county to the secession State Convention ; he was present 
at its organization, signed the ordinance of secession and 
was one of the 34 delegates who voted for a resolution 
offered to submit the ordinance of secession to a vote of 
the people for ratification or rejection. 

In 1874 he was elected a Judge of the Superior Court 
in the 8th Judicial District of this State, and held the 
courts of the district for the succeeding six months, and 
until a majority of the Supreme Court decided that the 
act of the Legislature under which he was elected was 
unconstitutional, which decision resulted in re-instating 
Judge Cloud on the bench. 

He was a member of the General Assembly of 1876- 
'77, as Senator from the32d Senatorial District, composed 
of the counties of Stokes and Forsyth. 



150 • SKETCHES OF 

T. H. COBB, Esq., 

OF ASHEVILLE, 

Was born the 20th of August, 1854. His father was 
Bartlett Yancey Cobb, of Caswell county. His mother 
was Barbara Malinda Henderson. His father entered 
the Confederate army early in the war and died in the 
service May 17th, 1862. In the fall of 1863 his mother 
moved to Lincolnton, where her parents resided. Dur- 
ing 1872 Mr. Cobb taught school in Gaston county. In 
1873 and 1874, he was acting Register of Deeds of Lin- 
coln county, and during this time he was studying law 
under John D. Shaw, then of Lincolnton, now of Rock- 
ingham. He spent the year 1875 at Richmond Hill, 
Yadkin county, at the law school of Hon. R. M. Pearson. 
He obtained his license to practice in January, 1876. 

On December 11th, 1879, he was married to Miss Ellen 
V. Johnson, eldest daughter of Capt. V. Q. Johnson, late 
of Charlotte. 

From the date of his admission to the bar, he practiced 
law in Lincoln and surrounding counties until Novem- 
ber, 1886, when he moved to Asheville, where he now 
resides and enjoys a successful practice. 

He has been for six years and is now, general counsel 
for the Carolina Central Railroad Company west of 
Charlotte. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 151 

B. F. LONG, Esq., 

OF STATESVILLE, 

Was born near Graham, N. C, in 1853. Son of Jacob 
and Jane Scewart Long, both now living on the old 
homestead. His mother is the daughter of the late Col. 
John Stockard, of Orange county. 

The subject of this sketch resided and worked on his 
father's farm until his nineteenth year, at intervals attend- 
ing school and preparing himself for college. After that 
time he started out in life for himself, and finished the 
course at Trinity College in a little over two years, gradu- 
ating in 1874, the valedictorian of his class and with the 
degree of A. B. Among his classmates were Hon. Lee S. 
Overman, Hon. E. T. Boykin, W. W. Staley and others. 

Mr. Long taught the Latin Department in Graham 
High School two 3^ears; he entered the law school of 
Judge Pearson in 1876, and obtained his license to prac- 
tice the following year. 

In 1877, he entered the law class at the University of 
Virginia, and completed the course in one year with the 
degree of Bachelor of Law. He also received the orator's 
medal awarded by that Institution and delivered the ora- 
tion as the representative of the Washington Society at 
the commencement of 1878. 

He located in Statesville, October 16tli, 1878, and 
formed a law partnership with Hon. W. M. Robbins. 

In 1879, he edited and published the Law Lectures of 
the late Chief Justice Pearson. 

He was married to Miss Mamie Alice Robbins, daugh- 
ter of Hon. W. M. Robbins, December 23d, 1879. 

In 1881, he was elected Solicitor of the Iredell Inferior 
Court by the Justices of Iredell county, to fill the vacancy 
occasioned by the resignation of lion. T. S. Tucker; he 
was re-elected to the same ofiBce twice. 

He was elected Mayor of Statesville in May, 1885, over 



152 SKETCHES OF 

Col. S. A. Sharpe, Republican. He held that office until 
January, 1887, when he resigned in order to assume the 
duties as Solicitor of the Superior Courts for the 8th 
Judicial District, to which office he had been elected by 
the Democrats of said district in November, 1886. For 
a man of his age, Mr. Long is considered a ripe lawyer. 
He is also a very fine advocate. He speaks in a fluent 
but plain and logical style. He handles his points 
lucidly and never fails to rivet them in the minds of the 
jury. His fine talents and his studious habits and high 
moral character render him a most promising man. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 153 



MEDICAL. 



Dr. EUGENE GRISSOM, LL. D., 

OF RALEIGH. 

Whatever rank the physician may have among intel- 
lectual lights, he is certainly the most indispensable of 
all professional men. The statesman invents all sorts of 
schemes to protect our persons and our property ; the poet 
studies to delight us ; the machinist gives us locomotives ; 
the astronomer discovers new worlds, but do any of them 
benefit the people as much as the physician? Which of 
them relieves the most distress and adds the most to our 
happiness? We have tried all manner of governments, 
but we have had continual wars. The history of medi- 
cine shows it to have been more conspicuously progres- 
sive than any other profession. 

Macaulay says that in England in 1685 men died faster 
in the purest country air than they died in 1855 in the 
most pestilential lanes of London, and that men died 
faster in the lanes of London in 1685 than they died in 
1855 on the coast of Guinea. 

In England, from 1685 to 1855, the length of human 
life was prolonged to a wonderful extent by the great ad- 
vances of medical science. The annual death rate de- 
creased during that period from one in every twenty- 
three inhabitants to only one in every forty. The brake- 
man who now falls from a car, or a victim of a danger- 
ous disease, is attended with a skill which a few hun- 
dred years ago the crown head of England could not have 
obtained. The discovery of chloroform is one of the 
greatest blessings that was ever bestowed on humanity. 



154 SKETCHES OF 

Medical science has extirpated many frightful diseases, 
and has rendered every complaint less severe. 

Physicians in many respects are subject to disadvant- 
ages which men of other professions are not They suffer 
greater hardships physically. They must go at all hours, 
and through the most severe heat and cold. No other 
profession does so much charity work. Physicians have 
been known to attend on families year after year without 
compensation. These noble men often endanger their 
health and sacrifice valuable time in the name of human 
kindness. 

Among the physicians of North Carolina Dr. Grissom 
enjoys the widest reputation, and has received perhaps 
the greatest recognition from the people. 

He was born the 8th of May, 1831, near Brassfield's, 
Granville county; son of Wiley H. and Mary Bobbitt 
Grissom. He was educated at Graham High School; 
graauated from the Medical Department of the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania in the spring of 1858. He was mar- 
ried to Mary Ann Bryan January 10, 1866. 

He is ex-President of the Raleigh Academy of Medi- 
cine; member of the American Medical Association, and 
in 1876 was Chairman of the Section of Psychological 
Medicine of that body; member of its Judicial Council 
in 1877; Third Vice-President in 1881 ; First Vice-Presi- 
dent in 1882. He was Vice-President of the Section of 
Mental Diseases of the International Medical Congress, 
which convened in Philadelphia in 1876. He is now 
Vice-President of the Association of Superintendents of 
American Insane Institutions. 

He was elected member of the General Assembly in 
1862 from the county of Granville; reelected in 1864. 
Delegate to the State Constitutional Convention in 1865. 
He was appointed Superintendent of the North Carolina 
Insane Asylum in 1868, which position he now occupies. 

He has received many Masonic honors, and is now In- 
spector General and active member of the Supreme 
Council of the Thirty-third Degree of the Ancient and 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 155 

Accepted Scottish Rite for tlie Southern jurisdiction of 
the United States. 

During the late war he was Captain of Company D, 
30th Regiment of North Carolina, and was wounded in 
the Seven Days' Fight around Richmond in 1862. He 
was afterwards Surgeon of the North Carolina State 
Troops; is now Surgeon General of the North Carolina 
State Guard. 

Some of his literary contributions are: "Mechanical 
Protection for the Violent Insane ;" a reply to " Notes on 
American Asylums," by Jno. Chas. Bucknill, M. D., F. R. 
S., of England; "The Borderland of Insanity, with Ex- 
amples Selected from the Illustrious Insane;" "Mental 
Hygiene for Pupil and Teacher;" " Medical Science in 
Conflict with Materialism," and various scientific and 
literary lectures. 

There is a Biographical Sketch, with accompanying 
steel plate engraving, of this gentleman in "The Physi- 
cians and Surgeons of the United States;" also, a sketch 
of him in "Representative Men of the South." 



EDMUND BURKE HAYWOOD, A. M., M. D., 

OF RALEIGH. 

Edmund Burke Haywood was born at Raleigh, N. C, 
January 13th, 1825. The Haywoods are of English ex- 
traction, residing originally in Worcestershire, England. 

Eveyln in his memoirs states that he met at the Court 
of James IL, Sir William Haywood, who was attached to 
the Court and was a man of importance there. About 
the later part of the 17th century, two of Sir William 
Haywood's brothers emigrated to the Barbadoes and 
were large planters there and shipped their produce from 



156 SKETCHES OF 

a place called* Port Haywood, near St. Michaels, where 
they lived. 

The great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch — 
John Haywood, a direct descendant of the Barbadoes 
Haywoods — settled at the mouth of Conoconary Creek 
(now Devereux's Ford), in Halifax county, and was 
Treasurer of the northern counties in Colonial times. 
One of his sons — Egbert by name — settled in Halifax 
county, while another son — William by name, and the 
grandfather of the subject of this sketch — moved to and 
settled in Edgecombe county. 

The father of the subject of this sketch was Hon. John 
Haywood, a planter of Raleigh, and its first Mayor, and 
also Treasurer of the State of North Carolina from 1787 
to 1827, after whom Haywood county and town, in the 
State, were named. He was the first vestryman elected 
for Christ Church, Raleigh. 

His father's first cousin, John Haywood, an eminent 
writer and jurist, was distinguished for his sound legal 
learning and clear perception. He was elected in 1791 At- 
torney General of the State, and in 1794 Judge of the Supe- 
rior Court of North Carolina, which position he resigned 
in 1804, and afterwards became Judge of the Supreme 
Court of Tennessee. He was the author of a " Manual of 
the Laws of North Carolina," " Haywood's Justice," " His- 
tory of Tennessee," and many works on scientific subjects, 
and was also the compiler of the Supreme Court Reports 
of Tennessee. Chief Justice Henderson, of North Caro- 
lina, in one of his judicial opinions, remarked of this 
distinguished man, substantially : "That he disparaged 
neither the living nor the dead when he said that an abler 
man than John Haywood never appeared at the bar or sat 
on the bench of North Carolina." His " History of Ten- 
nessee" is accurate and valuable. 

His grandfather, William Haywood, of Edgecombe 
county, filled various offices, both civil and military, and 
was a true patriot and useful citizen. He appeared in 
Court in 1765 and presented a commission from the King 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 157 

appointing him Colonel of the County of Edgecombe. 
The Stamp Act agitation coming on soon after, Colonel 
Haywood promptly espoused the cause of the Colonies, 
and was appointed Chairman of the Committee of Safety 
in Edgecombe by the Convention in Hillsboro in 1775. 
He was member for Edgecombe county in the State 
Congress held at Halifax, April 4th, 1776, and of the 
State Congress which met at the same place, November 
12th, 1776, and formed the Constitution of the State, and 
one of the Committee which framed that instrument. 
He was elected one of the counsellors of the State, the 
first ever elected in North Carolina, December, 1776. 

The mother of the subjectof thissketch was Eliza Eagles 
Williams, a daughter of John Pugh Williams, of Beaufort 
Co., who at the Provincial Congress held April, 1776, at 
Halifax, N.C., of which William Haywood wasamember, 
was made Captain of the North Carolina troops in the 
Edenton District, and afterwards attained to the rank of 
Colonel. He was one of those who, in the times that 
tried men's souls, stood up for their country and their 
rights and liberties. The Hon. Benjamin Williams, 
brother of John Pugh Williams, was elected Governor of 
North Carolina in 1799, and to the State Senate in 1807, 
at which session he was again elected Governor, and in 
1809 became a second time a member of the State Senate. 

One of Dr. E. B. Haywood's brother's, Dr. Fabius J. 
Haywood, was a distinguished physician of Raleigh, 
N. C. Another brother, George W. Haywood, was an 
eminent lawyer at the same place, but in consequence of 
increasing deafness was compelled to abandon the prac- 
tice of his profession, and is now a planter in Alabama. 
His sister, Miss Eliza Eagles Haywood, was a lady of re- 
markable intellectual and conversational powers, and the 
most distinguished lady in Raleigh in her day ; her so- 
ciety was much sought after by the best intellects of that 
time, and she was distinguished alike for her great intel- 
lectual capacity and her moral and social virtues. The 



158 SKETCHES OF 

Hon. William Henry Haywood, United States Senator 
for North Carolina from 1843 to 1846, was his first cousin. 

Dr. Haywood's primary education was commenced un- 
der the Rev. Dr. McPheeters at Raleigh, and continued 
at the Raleigh Academy, a well known educational es- 
tablishment at that day under Silas Bigelow and J. M. 
Lovejoy. He entered the University of North Carolina, 
joining an advanced class, and, until compelled to leave 
by ill health, took first and second distinctions. Among his 
classmates were United States Senators M. W. Ransom, 
John Pool and Gen. Johnston Pettigrew, who was regarded 
as the first mathematician of his day. He studied medi- 
cine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 
whence he graduated M. D. April 7th, 1849, and at once 
commenced the active practice of his profession in Ral- 
eigh. In 1850 he became a member of the Medical So- 
ciety of the State of North Carolina, and continued to 
practice with constantly increasing success until the out- 
break of the war. In May, 1861, he joined the Raleigh 
Light Infantry, and was elected their surgeon. 

The authorities being fully alive to the necessity of 
selecting men of administrative ability for hospital duty, 
Dr. Haywood was sent by Governor Ellis on a tour of in- 
spection and observation to the military hospital on 
Morris Island and at Fort Sumter, S. C. 

He was appointed Surgeon of the North Carolina State 
Troops, and placed in charge of the Fair Grounds Hos- 
pital, May 11th, 1861, and President of a Board of Sur- 
geons to examine applications for the position of surgeon 
to the North Carolina troops July 15th, 1861. 

He was appointed Surgeon in the Confederate States 
Army August 1st, 1862, and placed in charge of the Gen- 
eral Military Hospital at Raleigh, N. C, during the years 
1862, '63, '64, '65, and at Seabrooks Hospital during the 
fights around Richmond. 

In the same year he became President of the Medical 
Board for granting discharges and furloughs from the 
Confederate States Army for Raleigh, N. C., and acting 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 159 

medical director in the Confederete States Army for the 
Department of North Carolina. 

He remained in charge of the wounded Confederate 
soldiers long after the close of hostilities, and it was not 
until the 4th of July, 1865, that the last was discharged 
cured, and he resumed civil practice. 

Since the close of the late civil war he has received 
several letters of thanks and testimonials of friendly re- 
gard from Confederate and Federal soldiers who had 
been under his surgical treatment during the existence 
of hostilities. 

He was elected Vice President of the Medical Society 
of the State of North Carolina June 1st, 1866, and on 
June 6th, 1866, elected to the Chair of Surgery of the 
Board of Medical Examiners for the State of North Caro- 
lina for six years. On May 22d, 1868, he was elected 
President of the Medical Society of the State of North 
Carolina, and on June 4th, 1868, the honorary degree of 
A. M. was conferred on him by the Universitv of North 
Carolina. Upon retiring from the Presidency of the 
Medical Society of the State of North Carolina in 1869, 
he delivered a valedictory address at Salisbury, entitled 
*^ The Physician — His Relations to the Community and 
the Law," in which he sets forth in clear and forcible 
language the moral heroism and self-sacrifice of the con- 
scientious physician's career. The necessity for habits 
of close observation, to the exclusion of theories, is in- 
sisted upon, and the great importance of a more exten- 
ded knowledge of medical jurisprudence is urged with 
great acumen and ability. This address was published 
by request of the Medical Society. 

At the organization of the Raleigh Academy of Medi- 
cine in 1870, he became a member. In 1871 he was 
elected a member of the Committee on Publication of the 
transactions of the Medical Society of the State of North 
Carolina, and also filled that office in 1872 and 1873. He 
was elected Secretary of the Raleigh Academy of Medi- 
cine, January, 1872, and in the same year was appointed 



160 JSKETCHES OF 

by the Medical Society of the State, a member of the 
Board to examine druggists. In January, 1872, he brought 
suit at a special term of Wake County Superior Court to 
establish the right of physicians and surgeons to extra 
compensation when summoned as medical experts. The 
Supreme Court on appeal decided in Dr. Haywood's 
favor, Chief Justice Pearson delivering the opinion. In 
1873 he was elected a member of the Board of Censors 
by the Medical Society of the State, and in March of that 
year elected corresponding member of the Gyncoselogi- 
cal Society of Boston, Mass. In January, 1874, he was 
elected President of the Raleigh Academy of Medicine, 
and was a delegate in October, 1875, to the annual session 
of the Association of Medical Officers of the late Con- 
federate States Army and Navy held in Richmond, Vir- 
ginia. 

Although opposed politically to the party in power at 
that time, he was in 1865 appointed a member of the 
Board of Directors of the North Carolina Insane Asylum, 
in which capacity he served that Institution until 1875, 
when he was elected President of its Board of Directors, 
which office he has since that year held continuously up 
to the present time. 

He has always been indefatigable in promoting the 
comforts and welfare of the insane, and when the Gene- 
ral Assembly of North Carolina in March, 1875, passed 
an act to provide for the colored insane and appropriated 
$10,000 per annum for the establishment at the Marine 
Hospital Building at Wilmington of a branch asylum, 
he conclusively pointed out the impossibilities of ren- 
dering that building suitable for such a purpose and 
urged upon the General Assembly the necessity of appro- 
priating sufficient to build an asylum for the colored 
insane. A commission was in consequence appointed, a 
site selected at Goldsboro upon which handsome build- 
ings were erected and where the Eastern North Carolina 
Insane Asylum is now in successful operation. In his 
report as President of the Board of Directors of the 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 161 

Insane Asylum for 1877, after showing by statistics that 
the average expense per head for the insane in the North 
Carolina Asylum was far below that of other asylums in 
other parts of the Union, he makes an urgent and elo- 
quent appeal for an appropriation which should at least 
place them on equality with those of other States. 

He was a delegate from the Medical Society of the 
State of North Carolina to the American Medical Asso- 
ciation in the years 1869, 1870, 1875 and 1876, and to the 
International Medical Congress held in Philadelphia in 
September, 1876, and also to the Ninth International 
Medical Congress held in Washington City, September, 
1887. 

Dr. Haywood, in the course of his extensive practice, 
has performed successfully most of the more important 
surgical operations. In August, 1874, he performed the 
Csesarean section with success, the mother living nine 
days and the child thirteen hours. In 1874, he also 
operated on four cases of strangulated inguinal hernia, of 
which two were cured. In 1875 he operated successfully 
in two cases of lacerated perneum, and has probably 
operated more frequently for strangulated femoral hernia, 
umbilical hernia and strangulated inguinal hernia than 
any other surgeon in North Carolina. In 1869 he suc- 
cessfully performed ligation of the right external iliac, 
artery for traumatic aneurism of femoral artery, the first 
operation of the kind in North Carolina, and the case 
was considered so important that it was published in 
pamphlet form by order of the Raleigh Academy of 
Medicine and the North Carolina Medical Society. Since 
the war he has removed several cancerous tumors of the 
mammae. He was the first to use anaesthetics in obstet- 
ric and puerperal convulsions in North Carolina, in 1850. 
In April, 1869, he assisted Dr. Washington Atlee, of 
Philadelphia, in performing at Raleigh, an operation for 
ovariotomy; the patient was next day left entirely in 
Dr. Haywood's charge and recovered, and has since been 
the mother of three children. 

11 



162 SKETCHES OF 

He has operated twice successfully for the removal of 
submucus fibroid of the uterus. He has performed 
several other notable surgical operations, among, the most 
important of which may be mentioned: Aspiration of 
the pericardium for Hydrops, Pericardii, External JEso- 
phagotomy for impacted foreign body low down in aeso- 
phagus, amputation of thigh in its upper third for gan- 
grene of leg and thigh caused by traumatic femoral 
aneurism, Tracheotomy for foreign body in bronchus. 

His time has been so incessantly occupied by the 
demands of his extensive practice that he has had but 
little time for authorship, but among his contributions to 
medical literature may be mentioned ''report of an ope- 
ration for traumatic aneurism of femoral artery cured 
by ligature" to the Confederate Slates Medical and Surgi- 
cal Journal, 1864; " report of a case of compound com- 
minuted fracture of middle and lower third of both 
bones of right leg," "Comminuted fracture of right 
femur," "Compound fracture- of left femur just above 
the condyles, to the transaction of the Medical Society of 
the State of North Carolina, 1867. A paper on several 
surgical cases describing the removals of various tumors, 
to the transactions of the Medical Society of North Caro- 
lina, 1868; "Report of a successful operation for trau- 
matic aneurism of the superficial palmar arch. 

" A case of Craniotomy and operation for vesiconva- 
ginal fistula." "Report of a successful operation for 
compound comminuted fracture of cranium with exten- 
sive depression and several large fragments driven into 
the brain," in the transactions of the Medical Society of 
North Carolina, 1871." " Report of a case of total necro- 
sis of diaphysis of the tibia periosteum not necessary for 
osteogenesis." "Report of a case of membranous croup 
tracheotomy successfully performed and the child entirely 
recovered.^' " Report of a case of amputation of the 
right thigh at the upper third for gelatinous arthritis," 
in the transactions of the Medical Society of North Caro- 
lina, 1872. "Report of an operation for fistula in ano 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 163 

with the elastic ligature," in the transactions of the Medi- 
cal Society of North Carolina, 1874. 

Dr. Haywood is a member and vestryman of Christ 
Episcopal Cliurch, Raleigh, of which the Rev. Dr. 
Marshall is the Rector. 

He is at present President of the Board of Health for 
Wake county, and is surgeon to the Confederate Survi- 
vors Association. 

He is a member of the Board of Directors of and is the 
physician to Peace Institute, the Presbyterian school at 
Raleigh. 

He is now Medical Examiner for Raleigh of the 
Mutual, the Equitable, the New York, the Manhattan 
and the United States Life Insurance Companies, all of 
New York, and also of the Life Insurance Company of 
Virginia and the Maryland Life Insurance Company. He 
is also the Medical Referee of the Mutual Benefit Life 
Insurance Company of Newark, N. J. 

Dr. Haywood holds a distinguished position in the 
public esteem of his native State well worthy of the long 
line of illustrious ancestry from whom he is descended. 
His high professional rank is indicated in what has been 
given above. Successful in every department of medical 
art, he is distinguished especially as a surgeon, possessing 
as he does, the requisite nerve, cool judgment and deci- 
sion of character in an extraordinary degree. Fully 
abreast in the forward march of his profession, he dis- 
plays a due appreciation of all its resources for the relief 
of human suffering*and is prompt to accept responsibili- 
ties and to win success by a bold and intelligent confi- 
dence that accomplishes the best results. From the 
members of his profession as well as from the general 
public he enjoys the highest respect and esteem for the 
variety and depth of his attainments and the unwearied 
devotion to duty that he has ever displayed. His love 
for his fellowmen has been attested by his long and ardu- 
ous services in behalf of the charities of North Carolina 



164 SKETCHES OF 

and especially in the promotion of the welfare of the 
insane. His high and spotless character, his patriotic 
services and the nameless magic of his personal influence 
enabled him to stand firmly at a public post in the 
defence of the vital interests of the stricken and helpless 
insane in the very midst of furious political storms which 
passed him by as unscathed as the light house at whose 
base the ocean waves may dash in vain. But bold and 
unshrinking in the path of duty he is naturally modest 
and retiringand his honorshaveall been thrustuponhim. 
To him apparently nothing is so welcome as the unobser- 
ved performance of the laborious work of his profession. 

Dr. Haywood is above the ordinary stature, quiet and 
composed in manner with a most thoughtful and impres- 
sive countenance lit up by eyes of keen and searching 
power; somewhat reserved, in ordinary approach his 
personal bearing is always impressive and carries with it 
the stamp of directness of character and lofty and noble 
aims and feelings; he is both warm and outspoken in 
defence of right and justice, despising the mean and 
false, and firm and unwavering in his friendships. He 
has an intuitive knowledge of human nature with the 
great decision of character and a fixed determination 
that insures success. With an unusually afiPectionate 
disposition towards the members of his own family he 
combines a kindness and consideration for the interests of 
the younger members of his profession which has encour- 
aged many a weary struggler on the upward path to suc- 
cess. A patriot, a lover of mankind, a true friend and 
a sincere Christian ; few men hold to-day so enviable a 
place in the hearts of their fellow citizens as Dr. Edmund 
Burke Haywood. It is hoped that with the leisure that 
comes with advancing years Dr. Haywood may employ 
his valued pen still further to grace the medical literature 
of his State with the treasures of his rich experience. 

He married in November, 1850, Lucy A. Williams, 
daughter of Alfred Williams, planter and bookseller of 
Raleigh. He has one daughter and six sons. — From 
Re'presentative Men of the South. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 165 



EDITORIAL. 



JOHN JOSEPH BKUNEE, Esq., 

OF SALISBURY. 

The subject of this sketch is editor of the oldest news- 
paper in the State and he is the oldest editor in the 
State. He is a son of Henry Bruner and Edith Harris, 
youngest daughter of Col. West Harris, of Montgomery 
county, who represented that county several years in the 
Legislature. Henry Bruner was a gunsnaith and owned 
a gunshop on the Catawba River about seven miles from 
Salisbury. His father had also been a gunsmith. 

The subject of this sketch was born the 12th of March, 
1817, in Rowan county. His father died in September, 
1819, after which Joseph removed with his mother to 
Montgomery county, to reside with Col. West Harris. 

Mr. Bruner came to Salisbury in 1825 at the instance 
of Hon. Chas. Fisher and lived with that gentleman for 
one year, attending a school taught by Henry All man. 

In 1826, at the age of nine years, he made his debut 
into the newspaper world, entering the printing office as 
an apprentice under Col. Philo White, editor of the 
Western Carolinian. 

In 1830, Mr. White sold the paper to Burton Craige, 
who was editor until 1834, when the paper was sold to 
Maj. John Beard, of Florida. Mr. Bruner continued in 
the office all the while until 1836. 

In 1S39, he became a partner in the Watchman with 
M. C. Pendleton. The Watchman was started in 1832 by 
Hamilton C. Jones. 

Mr. Bruner retired temporarily from the Watchman in 
1842. But in 1844 he formed a partnership with Samuel 
W. James and re-purchased the paper. That firm existed 



166 SKETCHES OF 

until July, 1850, at which time Mr. Bruner became sole 
proprietor and continued so until his establishment was 
broken up by the Stonemau raid. The Federals took 
possession of his office and held it until July, 1865. Then 
Mr. Bruner resumed publication of the Watchman. In 
1868 Louis Haynes took an interest in the paper and 
changed the name to Watchman and Old North State. One 
year later Mr. Bruner retired and Louis Haynes conducted 
the paper alone. In 1871, Mr. Bruner re"-purchased the 
paper and re established the Watchman, which he has 
continued up to the present time. 

The records of the Watchman show a great change in 
the state of the country within the last fifty or sixty years, 
changes which half of our population cannot fully realize. 
There are not a great many men now living whose expe- 
rience reaches back to 1835 and 1840. At that time there 
was no daily paper in the State. One could not pick up 
a paper at that time and read what happened the day 
before in Congress or the kind of frock the President's 
wife wore at a reception the night previous. There was 
then no newspaper published in the State west of Salis- 
bury. If a fellow wanted to go to Washington he did 
not take a Pullman sleeper and wake up at his destina- 
tion, but he had to tough it out in a stage through the 
mud and mire. Most of our Legislators rode to the 
Capital in this fashion, but notwithstanding the inconve- 
nience of travel, there were plenty of patriotic men will- 
ing to make the trip. The Watchman^of 1840 advertises 
the Great Western Stage Line, leaving Salisbury at 5 
o'clock a. m. one day and arriving at Asheville at 8 p. m. 
the next, a journey of 39 hours, which " for speed could 
not be surpassed." 





This is the picture of the Great Western Coach Line 
which appeared in the Watchman in 1840. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 



167 



However, great improvement was made over these 
coaches. Some years later, when the North Carolina 
Railroad was built the public could travel at the incredi- 
ble speed of ten miles an hour. Many people were afraid 
to ride at this rapid rate. 




This picture which appeared in the Watchman is pre- 
cisely the kind of engine and coaches first used on the 
North Carolina Railroad. 

The men of that time had few of the conveniences 
that we now enjoy. No telegraph lines. Hotels in the 
present sense of the word <lid not exist. Travelers 
stopped at "Taverns" or 'Houses of Entertainment" 
which in our time could not be tolerated. 




This picture was used in the Watchman in advertising 
houses of entertainment. 

Merchants had to haul their goods great distances in 
wagons. When they received goods from Charleston a 
steamship was placed at the head of their advertisement 
to indicate that goods were received by water. 




Books and all kinds of literature were rare and expen- 
sive. The Watchman was furnished at $2.50 per year. 

However, the men of that time enjoyed advantages 
which we do not. Many of the necessities of life were 



168 SKETCHES OP 

cheaper than they||are now. Tobacco sold for eight 
cents; beef five cents ; coffee twelve cents, etc. Wool 
and fur hats of that time were made to last. Chas. 
Fisher, D. F. Caldwell, H. C Jones, Burton Craige, W. 
H. Crawford, Richard Alexander, and other distinguished 
citizens of Salisbury, wore handsome fur hats which 
would put to shame the shoddy silk hatof ourda3^ Five 
hat factories flourished in Rowan county at that period 
and the citizens had the satisfaction of knowing that the 
hats they purchased were worth their money and would 
stand the sun and the rain. 




This picture represents the fur hat advertised in the 
Watchmo/n. The Watchman of that time contained many 
advertisements amusing to this generation. 






These pictures were placed at the head of advertise- 
ments for absconded negroes. A great circus was adver- 
tised to appear in Salisbury the 3d and 4th of December, 
1835. 

The farmers of that time used home-made trace chains 
and axes, etc. A number of blacksmith shops and car- 
riage shops and hat factories flourished in Rowan, but 
the delusive idea of a protective tariff created monopolies 
at the North and soon drove our home manufacturing 
out of existence. 

Mr. Bruner was married in 1843, to Miss Mary Anne, 
daughter of Thos. Kincard, a descendant of the Brandons 
of revolutionary fame. 

Before the war Mr. Bruner was a Whig, during the 
war a Confederate, and after the war a Democrat. 

He received only a limited education. After he grew 
up he attended school for a short time, paying his expen- 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 169 

ses himself. In his long experience in journalism he 
has always acted in a manner to win and retain the 
respect and confidence of the people. He is one of the 
purest and best of men. 



WILLIAM J. YATESJ 

EDITOR OP THE CHARLOTTE DEMOCRAT. 

William J. Yates was born in Fayetteville, N. C. His 
father was a mechanic, being what was known in earlier 
days as a '' wheel-wright," or wagon and gig maker; his 
mother was a devoted christian woman of the "old style," 
and a consistent member of the Methodist E. Church for 
seventy-two years; and his grand parents were English 
and Welsh, coming to this country direct from Great 
Britain. 

After going to school a short time, Mr. Yates entered 
as an apprentice the printing office of the North Caroli- 
nian, a Democratic paper published at" Fayetteville by 
Hardy L. Holmes, Esq , who was a prominent lawyer in 
his day. After serving an apprenticeship of about seven 
years, he worked as a journeyman printer in the North 
Carolinian, office at seven dollars per week, saving enough 
money to build a dwelling-house for the use of his mother, 
which house he still owns. 

Mr. Yates' never-yielding energy and industry was 
early rewarded by his being enabled to purchase the 
printing office in which he learned the printing busi- 
ness, and in 1854 and 1855 (or about those years) he suc- 
cessfully published the North Carolinian. 

After traveling a good deal in Western Virginia, Ken- 
tucky and Ohio, looking for a better locality than North 
Carolina in which to live, he concluded it was not to be 
found ; and went hack to Fayetteville, sold his newspa- 



170 JSK ETCHES OF 

per office, moved to Charlotte, N. C, in September, 1856, 
and purchased the Democrat, which paper he has contin- 
uously published from that day lo the present. 

In reply to the question as to what he attributed his 
success, Mr. Yates answered that it was owing to his in- 
dividual efforts (blessed by a kind Providence), close at- 
tention to business, complying strictly with every prom- 
ise made, studying hard, working hard, the use of proper 
economy, and never engaging in but one business at a 
time: that of publishing a newspaf)er. He never stayed 
a day at home (during business hours) when he was able 
to walk or ride to his office. As for stopping work on 
account of a slight "ailment," he never thought of such 
a thing, and for twenty or twenty-five years never retired 
to bed before 11 or 12 o'clock at night, when well enough 
to read and write till that hour — generally being among 
the earliest workmen at his office in the morning. He 
does not believe in any sort of "luck," but knows that 
" Providence will help a man who helps himself." 

Mr. Yates was never an office seeker, not because he 
disapproves entirely of seeking office, but because it was 
not agreeable to his taste, habits or disposition, nor ac- 
cording to his idea of the duties of a newspaper editor 
and publisher. Therefore he would never consent to the 
use of his name for the nomination for an elective office 
by the people. He has, however, held some important 
State offices, as well as Directorships in two Railroads 
while they were in course of construction (the Atlanta 
and Charlotte Air- Line and the Carolina Central). The 
State offices he held were, a member of the "Council of 
State," in 1859 and 1860, during Gov. John W. Ellis' first 
term, having been elected to that position from the Char- 
lotte Congressional District by the Legislature; and he 
was a member of the " Literary Board" of the State, which 
Board had charge of and distributed the Common School 
Fund before the war between the States. During Mr. 
Yates' term as Councillor of State, three Judges of the 
Superior Court were appointed by the Governor and 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 171 

Council to fill vacancies, viz.: Osborne, Howard and 
French, and Hon. M. E. Manly was transferred from the 
Superior Court to the Supreme Court bench. 

At present Mr. Yates is a Trustee of the University of 
North Carolina, and a Director in the Board which gov- 
erns the Western N. C. Insane Asylum, which latter po- 
sition he has filled since the opening of that institution 
in 1882-'83. 

All the offices he has filled might be termed "charity" 
or *' patriotic" ones, as only traveling expenses have been 
or are paid, and some dia not pay that much. 

How faithfully Mr. Yates has fulfilled his obligations 
as a private citizen, a newspaper publisher, and as a public 
officer, his fellow-citizens of North Carolina can judge. 
From the year he was old enough to vote to the present 
time he has voted the Democratic ticket, having always 
been a firm, consistent and conservative Democrat of the 
straitest order, but never hesitated to censure radicalism 
or misdoing in his owm party, as well as in that of others. 
He never belonged to a secret political or class combina- 
tion of any sort, believing that such organizations had a 
tendency, ultimately, to harm rather than benefit work- 
ing, industrious men of any occupation or profession. 



T. B. KINGSBURY, Esq., 

OF WILMINGTON. 

The subject of this sketch is by far the most scholarly 
editor in the State; a man of extensive range of knowl- 
edge, possessing an original and comprehensive mind, 
and a literary taste as pure as a snow flake. His writ- 
ings are dignified and convincing, and often sparkle with 
the richest scintillations of thought. His figures and 
metaphors are never light or thrust in for vain display, 



172 SKETCHES OP 

but they dart from his pen necessarily like sparks from 
the anvil. He writes with facility on politics, literature, 
religion, and all the subjects that should engage the ed- 
itor. His merits as a writer are recognized throughout 
the length and breadth of the State. He is unquestion- 
ably the most talented man who has ever edited a paper 
in this State. 

His life has been full of plodding and drudging. His 
cherished literary aspirations have been abandoned from 
necessity, having had no leisure to undertake and com- 
plete them. As editor of the Leisure Hour and Our Liv- 
ing and Our Dead, he displayed ability enough, but for 
want of patronage those journals perished, and long since 
found premature graves. One of his hopes was to write 
a History of North Carolina ; another was to write a vol- 
ume or two of Sketches of Eminent North Carolinians of 
the Past, and still a third was to undertake a volume in 
Biography and Criticism of famous authors. These have 
come to nothing. For the last twelve years he has done 
the entire editorial work on the daily Wilmington Star — a 
task which no man could do and write a book. His 
health has always been delicate and uncertain, which has 
added twofold to his discouragement. 

He is now in his sixtieth year; his cherished hopes 
broken, and his best efforts not appreciated by himself. 
But his writings have had an elevating and extensive 
influence on the sentiments and opinions of the people, 
and will be felt for years to come. 

He was born at Raleigh the 29th of August, 1828, in 
Guion's Hotel, owned by an uncle, now a part of the 
State Geological building. His father was Russell Kings- 
bury, of Connecticut, who came to North Carolina in his 
early manhood, between 1812 and 1815. An ancestor of 
Mr. Kingsbury was a neighbor and personal friend of 
Governor Winthrop in England, and came with him to 
this country in 1630. 

Mr. Kingsbury is of the eighth generation in this coun- 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 173 

try. His relations and connections in the North are ex- 
tensive, and include many men of local distinction. 

His mother was Mary JSumner Bryant, of Scotland 
Neck, Halifax county. Her father was a solid, substan- 
tial farmer, a man of character and probity. Her brother 
Joseph was a Captain of Cavalry in the war of 1812 with 
Great Britain and died on the Canada frontier. His 
body servant brought back his horse, sword and pistols 
from that then remote point. 

The subject of this sketch attended the Oxford Male 
Academy for several years, a famous school, until he was 
sixteen. He then went to Bingham School for a short 
time, and thence to the Lovejoy Military Academy at 
Raleigh, where he remained for two years. He then 
went to the University of North Carolina, but left before 
he was graduated. He spent the first seven years of his 
manhood in the mercantile establishment of his father at 
Oxford. He was his father's partner ; but after his fath- 
er's death in 1856, Mr. Kingsbury retired from business. 

He married Miss Sallie Jones Atkinson, daughter of 
the late Gen. Roger P. Atkinson, of Virginia, and Mar- 
garet, daughter of the late Thomas B. Littlejohn, of Ox- 
ford. In 1858 he founded and edited the Leisure Hour, a 
purely literary paper that was published at Oxford. He 
has been connected with a dozen or more dailies, weeklies 
and magazines : he edited Our Living and our Dead, a 
monthly devoted to the memorials of the war and to lit- 
erature, and also the North Carolina Educational Journalj 
both published at Raleigh. In 1876 he delivered an 
Historical Address, by the request of the people at Ox- 
ford, on the 4th of July, upon Granville county. The 
manuscript, if written out in full, would make a volume 
of some 175 or 200 pages. 

In 1876 he was invited to the editorial chair of the 
Morning Star, and is now occupying that position. 

In 1882 he delivered the literary address before Wilson 
Female College on North Carolina. In 1883 he deliv- 
ered, at the request of the Methodists of Halifax county, 



174 SKETCHES OF 

an oration on the Life and Character of the late Thos. G. 
Lowe, an orator of seraphic and wondrous eloquence. 
This was published in a large edition that h as been 
exhausted. From an affection of the throat and bron- 
chitis and pressure of duties, he has been compelled to 
decline many invitations in the last few years to deliver 
addresses before schools and colleges. 

He has a sister, the wife of Col. Thos. B. Venable, of 
Oxford. Mr. Venable is the eldest son of the late Hon. 
Abram W. Venable. 

He is the father of seven children, all grown ; five 
daughters and two sons. His eldest daughter, Cora, is 
the wife of Rev. Jos. W. Shackelford, of Virginia, a Meth- 
odist minister. He has buried two little boys. 

His mother died in great peace in 1836, in her 34th 
year, and when he was but eight years of age. His father 
died in 1856. They are buried at Oxford. 



SAMUEL A. ASHE, Esq., 

OF RALEIGH, 

Son of William S. Ashe, was born at Wrightsville 
Sound, New Hanover county, September 13th, 1840. In 
1850, his father having been elected to Congress removed 
his family from his home at Rocky Point, to Washing- 
ton City, that his children might enjoy the superior edu- 
cational advantages of the schools there. 

In 1855, the subject of this sketch having been appointed 
by Hon. Warren Winslow to a cadetship at Annapolis, 
he entered the Naval school and took a high stand in his 
class, which he maintained until the fall of 1858, when, 
finding his constitution unsuited to sea life, he resigned, 
and returning to Rocky Point, began an extensive course 
of reading preparatory to the study of law. In the 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 175 

spring of 1861 he was studying law with Mr. William 
Ruffin at Haw River, when Fort Sunater being fired on, 
he immediately repaired to Wilmington and entered the 
military service, continuing in the same throughout the 
war. 

In January, 1866, he became a Conductor on the Wil- 
mington and Weldon Railroad, but obtaining his license 
to practice the following January, he at once opened a 
law office at Wilmington, meeting with ordinary success 
during the probationary years of practice. 

It was his habit to take an active part in politics, and 
he was greatly interested in all measures tending to 
relieve the eastern people from the evils of negro domi- 
nation. 

On the night before the election of 1870, he was 
informed that a month before he had been nominated for 
the Legislature at a secret meeting of the County Execu- 
tive Committee, and that tickets would be distributed 
that night and he would be voted for. The Republicans 
had a very large majority in the county, but there were 
four Republican candidates in the field while the county 
was entitled to but three members. The Democrats 
polled a full vote for Mr. Ashe and he was elected by a 
handsome majority. At that time the elements of oppo- 
sition to the Republican party were very loosely united, 
and one of the matters which Mr. Ashe regarded as of 
the highest importance was to weld these elements 
together into a compact party organization. To this end 
he directed his best endeavors during the legislative ses- 
sions, then prolonged near six months in each year — 
while he was also a laborious member and active in 
general legislation, being a leading member of the Judi- 
ciary and other important committees. As chairman of 
the Finance Committee he brought forward a measure 
for the settlement of the State debt similar to the adjust- 
ment subsequently made, which passed the House of 
which he was a member, but was not considered in the 
Senate. 



176 ISKETCHES OF 

At the end of his legislative term he located at Raleigh, 
and the following year entered into a law copartnership 
with Judge Merrimon and Hon. Thomas C. Fuller, which 
was continued until 1879, when Mr. Ashe bought the 
Observer, the leading newspaper in the State, and entered 
the field of journalism. In 1872 he was elected a mem- 
ber of the State Democratic Committee, becoming subse- 
quently its Secretary and then Chairman. He entered 
with patriotic ardor into each campaign, devoting on 
each occasion months of indefatigable labor to the suc- 
cess of the Democratic party, whose ascendency he con- 
sidered as indespensably necessary for the welfare, happi- 
ness and prosperity of the people of North Carolina. 

In 1881, the Raleigh Neius was consolidated with the 
Observer, and under the name of the News and Observer t 
the new paper has been of great usefulness to the State 
and to the Democratic party, its chief aim being to pro- 
mote the welfare of the people and to conserve the influ- 
ences of party organization and maintain the adminis- 
tration of public affairs in the hands of those best fitted 
to direct them. 

In 1885, Mr. Ashe was appointed Postmaster at Ral- 
eigh, Mr. McRee, the associate editor of the News -and 
Observer, succeeding him as editor of that journal. 

Mr. Ashe may contemplate with just pride the splen- 
did growth of the newspaper which he took as a mere 
wreck and converted into a self sustaining institution. 

He rendered valuable service as a legislator at a very 
critical and important period, and his work on the Demo- 
cratic Executive Committee deserves the gratitude of his 
party. 

He has been somewhat interested in State historical 
matters and has contributed some very rare and impor- 
tant articles on that subject. He is one of the finest 
writers in the State. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 177 

JOSEPH P. CALDWELL, Esq., 

OF STATESVILLE. 

This gentleman is the son of Hon. Joseph Pearson 
Caldwell, who was a native of Iredell county, and of pure 
Scotch-Irish blood ; educated at Bethany Academy, about 
six miles from Statesville; studied law under his brother 
David F. Caldwell, and settled at Statesville, on College 
Street, near the spot where Dr. Anderson's drug store is 
now situated ; a man of fine personal appearance, and an 
able and dignified lawyer. He was serving his second 
term in Congress when he died. 

The subject of this sketch was born at Statesville, June 
16th, 1853. From the time he was old enough, he worked 
on his mother's farm. He sometimes went to school in 
winter, in all some half a dozen sessions, which makes 
the sum total of his collegiate education. When about 
fifteen years of age he entered the office of the Statesville 
American, where he acquainted himself with the art of 
printing. He worked there until he was nineteen years 
old, then took a situation on the Statesville Intelligencer 
as compositor and local editor. In the fall of 1872, he 
went to Charlotte as local editor of the Daily Observer ^ 
where he remained about four years, dispensing a lively 
wit and humor through the columns of that paper and 
winning wide popularity. Thence he went to Raleigh 
as local editor of the Daily News and remained there 
one year, after which he returned to Charlotte as edito- 
rial writer for the Observer, and so continued until Janu- 
ary, 1880, when he purchased the Landmark, of States- 
ville, which paper he has conducted with increasing suc- 
cess ever since. 

He is serving his second term as Mayor of Statesville.. 

He writes in a very original, pleasing and easy style. 
He boldly says whatever he thinks, which adds interest 
to his editorial columns. As a news gatherer he is 

12 



178 SKETCHES OF 

exceptional. Altogether his paper is equal if not supe- 
rior to any weekly in the State. He has an inexhausti- 
ble stock of humor and deals it out to the delight of all 
his readers. 



JULIUS A. BONITZ, Esq., 

OF WILMINGTON. 

This is the first gentleman on record who started on 
the road to success by swapping an old brickyard for a 
worn out newspaper. He was born on the famous 
"Hartz Mountain" in Germany ; he came to this country 
with his parents when a child. His father had been the 
Superintendent of the celebrated silver and copper mine 
"Dorothea," on the Hartz, having charge of over 300 
coiners. His grandfather and great-grandfather had 
eharge of the same mine. 

Mr. Bonitz was born December 22d, 1842; married Miss 
Delia A. Berndt, of Lynchburg, Va., in 1873; has four 
children, two boys and two girls. He served in the Con- 
federate army three years and eight months. 

The remainder of his history has been charmingly 
told by an anonymous writer: 

" At the close of the war Mr. Bonitz engaged in the 
mercantile business, in, the old Goddard store on the 
corner where his Opera House now stands. His business 
was profitable and he made money rapidly, clearing some 
$9,000 the first year after the surrender. 

" Thus encouraged he bought the Pate farm near Golds- 
boro, and here in one year all his thousands of the pre- 
vious year were completely absorbed, and Mr. Bonitz 
found himself, financially, pretty much as he was when 
he came to Goldsboro. Five dollars was all he possessed, 
and this was part of the proceeds from the forced sale of 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 179 

his watch. With this five dollars he started an employ- 
ment agency in this city and again fortune smiled upon 
him. His first labors yielded the snug fee of $150 for 
services in securing and preparing contracts for twenty 
laborers to go to a turpentine farm in South Carolina. 

"With means thus accumulated, Mr. Bonitz started a 
brick yard, but his destiny directed otherwise. His 
money gave out, when a large kiln of 200,000 brick was 
being burned. The supply of wood became exhausted, 
a terrible cold rain set in, and when the kiln had cooled 
off the brick were found to be half burned and unsala- 
ble. 

''Proving himself again equal to the emergency, Mr. 
Bonitz began to look about him for a chance to realize 
something from his mountain of unsalable brick, and 
here destiny came to his aid. The Goldsboro Star had 
succumbed and the printing material was lying idle, held 
by Mr. Wesley Whitaker's bondsmen. Mr. Bonitz pro- 
posed to trade them the kiln of brick for the outfit. The 
trade was speedily consummated and Mr. Bonitz found 
himself the owner of a printing office outfit, but without 
money, without friends of any influence, and without 
newspaper experience, further than that so often met 
with in people who are a failure at every thing else, an 
itching "to edit a paper," and fully persuaded that they 
can do it. 

"The press and type were moved to the old printing 
office building, corner of West-Centre and Chestnut 
streets, the site now occupied by Messrs. Farrior Bros. & 
Hollowell, and a few days later the citizens of Goldsboro 
were surprised by the appearance of The Daily Rough 
Notes, a Democratic campaign paper. No prospectus had 
been issued, and the first issue of the paper, appearing the 
22d of April, 1867, heralded its own existence. 

"In the exciting and eventful campaign of that year, 
the Rough Notes battled energetically in the cause of 
Democracy, Right and Justice, and in opposition to mili- 
tary despotism and negro rule. In his labors Mr. Bonitz 



180 SKETCHES OF 

was assisted by the able pen of Mr. Robinson. The 
enterprise was a doubtful undertaking, and generally so 
considered, but he had started out to achieve success, and 
in his lexicon there was no such word as "fail." The 
years of l868-'69 were indeed trying ones to the enter- 
prise. It seemed as though it must succumb, but energy 
and perseverance triumphed and bid defiance to the 
many predictions that the paper could not succeed. On 
the 8th of October, 1868, Maj. Wm. A. Hearne and Capt. 
Swift Galloway became associated with the paper, when 
without an interruption of publication, the name of 
Rough Notes was changed to that of Messenger, the first 
having been chosen solely for campaign purposes. 

"This copartnership lasted only a few weeks, when both 
gentlemen withdrew, leaving Mr. Bonitz in quiet posses- 
sion. 

"Financially the enterprise promised to be a failure. 
It was indeed a struggle for existence. Starvation stared 
him in the face and it seemed as though the paper must 
perish. To use the words of a friend, "it required twenty- 
four hours' notice for a printer to get a dollar." These 
were trying times, and they caused Mr. Bonitz many a 
sleepless night; but he had started out to win success 
and determined to achieve it. 

"On the fatal Saturday nig^ht of September 4th, 1869, 
which witnessed the destruction of nearly all the busi- 
ness part of Goldsboro, the office and printing material 
of the Messenger were entirely destroyed by fire. No 
insurance, and presses, type, etc., a total loss. It was 
then that Mr. Bonitz rose superior to the occasion and 
displayed that wonderful energy which has since charac- 
terized his conduct of the Messenger. With less than $200 
worth of material, consisting of a few type and one small 
amateur hand press, without a shelter for an office, he 
printed an "extra," chronicling the particulars of the fire. 
This was accomplished on Monday after the fire, in the 
open air, under the old sweet gum tree, now standing in 
front of the "Messenger Opera House." Mr. W. H. Col- 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 1811 

lins, then and now foreman of the Messenger^ worked the 
press, which could not print the slips as fast as the hun- 
dreds of eager hands reached for them. This energy 
was appreciated by the public, and all who were able 
gave tangible proof of their appreciation by urging that 
the publication be resumed, and backing up that encour- 
agement by paying the subscription price of the paper 
in advance. Thus encouraged the Messenger re-appeared 
in a new dress after only four days' suspension, published 
as a weekly and semi-weekly. Henceforward the Messen- 
ger entered upon a career of prosperity and enlarged use- 
fulness. 

'^The business direction of the paper, as also the edi- 
torial department, are under the vigilant management 
and supervision, and it may be proper here to add that 
the paper is the creation of his own labors. He controls 
the business management in its minutest details and 
carefully edits and revises the entire make up of the 
paper. For many years he did the marvelous work of 
alone editing and managing the entire paper. But in the 
campaign of 1880 his health became impaired and since 
then his labors are somewhat lightened by those whom 
he has called about him to aid and assist in making the 
Messenger what he designs it shall ever be — a first-class 
family newspaper. 

"Young men may find a valuable lesson in the career 
of Mr. Bonitz. Let them remember that when they start 
out to seek success in the world, they should do so with a 
determination to win. Like Mr. Bonitz, let them bear in 
mind the wise words of David Crockett: "Be sure you 
are right, then go ahead." Place your mark high and 
well up beyond your reach — keep it before, you but strive 
to win it. Persevere! And remember that 

" If at first you don't succeed, 
Try, try again." 

Mr. Bonitz went to Wilmington, at the solicitation of 



182 SKETCHES OF 

the business men of that place, in June, 1887, since which 
time he has edited the " Wilmington Messenger " which 
promises to be a fine success. 



ABRAHAM HAYWOOD MERRITT, 

OF PITTSBORO. 

The subject of this sketch was born in Chatham county, 
July 18th, 1832. He was prepared for college under the 
late W. J. Bingham, at Oaks, Orange county, N. C. He 
graduated at the University of North Carolina with high 
distinction in 1856. Was editor of the University Maga- 
zine during his senior year. After leaving college he 
entered the school room and taught very successfully 
until the beginning of the war. He was then at the 
head of a flourishing high school at Olin, Iredell county. 
The derangement of nearly every line of business, caused 
by the hostilities between the States, necessitated the sus- 
pension of the school. He then returned to Chatham, 
his native county. He was appointed Clerk and Master 
in Equity for Chatham, although that position was usu- 
ally given to lawyers and was eagerly sought by several 
excellent members of the bar. This position he contin- 
ued to fill with entire acceptability to the court and bar 
until the office was abolished. After the war he was in 
charge of a school of high grade at Cary, Wake county, 
and later was in charge of the Academy at Pittsboro. He 
was married in 1861 to Miss Purviss, of Iredell county, a 
lady of great intellect and worth, by whom he has seven 
interesting children. 

In 1880 he was elected State Senator by a most flatter- 
ing vote. Was nominated unexpectedly and against his 
wishes, and in a county where the parties are nearly 
equally divided he received over seven hundred votes 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 183 

more than both his competitors. Was one of the presid- 
ing Justices of the Inferior Court when he received the 
Domination for the Senate. Was elected one of the Trus- 
tees of the State University during that session of the 
General Assembly. By profession he is a Methodist, 
takes great interest in tlie Sunday-school work, and has 
made, at different times, addresses on the subject which 
have been highly complimented. Diffident and distrust- 
ful of himself, he seldom appears before the public, but 
this much may be said in his praise, he is mcst loved 
and esteemed by those who know him best. He was 
Chairman of the Joint Committee on the Library, and 
Chairnian of the Committee on Education, Enrolled Bills, 
and Roads and Highways. He was a conscientious and 
faithful Senator— ever watchful of the interests of those 
he had the honor to represent. 

He was returned to the next Senate by a handsome 
majority over a prominent and popular opponent. He 
was made Chairman again of the Committee on Education, 
and was largely instrumental in framing and carrying 
through the Legislature the present School Law. He 
served on other committees, and took a prominent part in 
all the important measures of legislation. He has since 
declined every importunity to be returned to the Legisla- 
ture. 

In '84 his friends brought his name forward fur State 
Superintendent of Public Instruction. He was strongly 
endorsed and received a flattering vote in convention. 

He has also been prominently spoken of for " Commis- 
sioner of Agriculture." But he never pushes his own 
claims for recognition. 

Since the fall of '84 he has been the efficient Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction for Chatham; and has ed- 
ited and published The Home, a sound Democratic and 
popular family paper. The press and people give him 
credit for being a good writer and a level-headed man. 

Tlie following are among the many complimentary 
notices which this distinguished gentleman has, from 
time to time, received from the newspapers of the State, 



184 SKETCHES OF 

showing in what high estinoatiou he is held by his fellow- 
citizens and brethren of the press throughout the length 
and breadth of his native State: 

For Superintendent of Public Instruction. — We are 
glad to observe that Mr. A. H. Merritt, of Chatham county, 
is prominently mentioned as a candidate for the impor- 
tant office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. We 
know of no one better qualified in all respects than he 
for the position. He is endorsed by Judges Ruffin, Fowle 
and Merrimon ; Hon. Messrs. W. L. Steele, Dowd and 
Manning; Major Robert Bingham, Mr. J. S. Carr, and 
numerous other prominent gentlemen.'-i^a^/e^^m/Ze Ob- 
server, May 22, 1884. 

Asheville Citizen: We depart from our usual habit when 
we note that Mr. A. H. Merritt, of Chatham county, is 
prominently named as a candidate for the office of Su- 
perintendent of Public Instruction. Such a recommend- 
ation we would endorse most heartily, because we believe 
Mr. Merritt most eminently qualified for the duties of 
such position. We speak of what we know. He was a 
member of the Senate at the session of 1881. He was our 
roommate. He is a finislied scholar, and has turned 
his talents and acquirements to educational uses. As 
a legislator no member was more active or more intel- 
ligent in perfecting and advocating measures for the 
improvement of the school laws, no one more liberal and 
earnest in all propositions in aid of educational and lit- 
erary institutions. If Mr. Merritt had a hobby it was on 
educational topics. He is a gentleman of great modesty, 
not apt to sound his own praises. But he is industrious, 
he is energetic, he is intelligent, and he is pure. The 
State Convention will make no mistake in giving him 
the nomination. 

Wilmington Star : Our excellent contemporary, the Pitts- 
boro Home, has completed its third year. It is a good, 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 185 

honest paper, edited with discriminating tact, fairness 
and ability. 

Concord Times: The Pittsboro Home has just closed its 
third volume. It is a good paper. The editor says: 
^' We do not boast of being wise and smart and enterpris- 
ing, nor do we hope to please everybody." We congrat- 
ulate Bro. Merritt upon standing on such a platform. 
The man v/ho tries to please everybody will soon find 
that he pleases nobody. 

Charlotte Chronicle: With its last issue, The Home, oi 
Pittsboro, closed its third volume. It is a straightfor- 
ward, sincere journal, and merits the most abundant suc- 
cess, for Bro. A. H. Merritt has given his readers an ac- 
ceptable paper. 

Alamance Gleaner: The Pittsboro Home completed its 
third year last week. The Home is thoroughly reliable 
and intelligently edited — it could not be otherwise with 
A. H. Merritt, Esq., managing it. We wish editor and 
paper continued success. 

Progressive Farmer : The Chatham Home has closed its 
third volume and enters upon its fourth with an increased 
list of subscribers and flattering prospects. We congratu- 
late Mr. Merritt on his well-merited success. It speaks 
well for the people of a county when their home papers 
are well sustained. 



186 SKETCHES OF 

EUGENE B. DRAKE, Esq., 

OF STATESVILLE, 

Was born near Haywood, Ghatbam county, December 
1st, 1808. Son of Francis Drake and grandson of Gene- 
ral Hardy GriflBn, of Nasb county. He was raised on a 
farm ; educated at a country scbool, tbe usual method at 
that time. At the age of 16, taking leave of family and 
home, he went to Fayetteville to accept a position as 
clerk in a mercantile house. Close attention to business 
and strict economy brought fair accumulations, which in 
a few years enabled him to start in business on his own 
account. He has been twice married, first to Miss Katha- 
rine J. Warden and later to Miss Maria L. Ramsey, 
daughter of the late John A. Ramsey, of Chatham. In 
1836, he removed tc> Columbus, Mississippi, and in 1840 
became editor of the Southern Argus newspaper, and with 
S. S. Prentiss andT. G. Brownlow and other Whigs, took 
an active part in the "Log Cabin" campaign that elected 
General W. H. Harrison President, over Martin Van 
Buren. At the close of the campaign he removed to 
Mobile and again embarked in mercantile life, with a 
branch house in New Orleans. At the expiration of four 
years he went to St. Louis, but returned to New Orleans 
in 1847, and resided there seven years. Within this time 
the fiUibuster invasion of Cuba by General Lopez took 
place and Mr. Drake was invited to join it by that oflS- 
cial, but declined. 

After an absence of some twenty years, in search of the 
"best place," Mr. Drake returned to his native State and 
found what he had so long searched for, "The Best 
Place." 

Adopting journalistic life, Mr. Drake started the Bulle- 
tin at Asheboro, using the press upon which the Meck- 
lenburg Declaration of Independnece was printed ; and 
later, in 1855-56, was editor of the Herald in Salisbury. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 187 

A year after his sojourn at Salisbury, he went to States- 
ville and established the ^'Iredell Express" which was con- 
tinued until April 13th, 1865, when the office was burned 
by General Stoneman's raiders. Another outfit was soon 
supplied and the nanaeof the journal changed to "Ameri- 
can" which was continued until the latter part of 1886, 
when the editor retired from journalism, after a service 
in that profession for 35 years. 

In politics Mr. Drake was an old Henry Clay Whig, 
and a "Union man" since the days of South Carolina 
nullification and the opposition of General Jackson to 
the United States Bank ; but later chose the Republican 
party as more in harmony with the principles of the old 
Whig party. 

Mr. Drake opposed secession and the late war until his 
State withdrew, then advised the prosecution of the con- 
test that the most favorable terms might be secured in a 
final adjustment of the troubles. 

He has not been a politician or office seeker, but; he is 
strong in the faith of his party. He never had bestowed 
upon him any official position of note under the National 
or State Government. 

Mr. Drake is perhaps the only living man in the State 
who ever saw General LaFayette and Aaron Burr. He 
celebrated his "Golden Wedding" some three years since. 



LEOOTDAS Lafayette polk, Esq., 

OP RALEIGH, 

Was born April 24th, 1837, in Anson county. His 
father was a farmer. At the age of fourteen Mr. Polk 
was left without parents. He received a very meagre 
education; only studied the English branches. He was 
married to Miss S. P. Gaddy, of Anson county. 



188 SKETCHES OF 

In 1860 he was elected to the Legislature and served 
in the regular and both the extra sessions. He volun- 
teered as a private in the army in May, 1862, joining the 
26th N. C. Regiment, of which Z. B. Vance was Colonel. 
He was Sergeant Major of the Regiment until February, 
1863. He was transferred and promoted to 3d Lieuten- 
ant in the 43d N. C. Regiment, of which Col. T. S. Kenan 
was Colonel. He served through all the campaigns of 
these regiments. He was elected as the soldiers' candi- 
date by the soldier vote to the Legislature of 1864 and 
'65. He left the army in the Valley of Virginia and took 
his seat. In 1865 he was elected to the Johnson Consti- 
tutional Convention over Gen. A. J. Dargan. Mr. Polk 
was at the time at home ploughing a mule and his can- 
didacy was not announced until the morning of election 
day. He was a prime mover for the State Agricultural 
Department. 

He was chairman of the committee from the State Grange 
which was before the Legislature in behalf of the Agri- 
cultural Department He was elected Commissioner of 
the Department, April, 1877, established and organized 
it. He resigned in June, 1880. He was for some time 
associate editor on the Raleigh News wMth P. M. Hale, 
and subsequently on the staff of the News and Observer, 
He is now, editor of the Progressive Farmer, published at 
Raleigh. 

He is President of the Inter-State Farmers* Association, 
composed of the ten cotton States and organized in 
Atlanta, Georgia, August, 1887. He is First Vice-Presi- 
dent of the Farmers' National Alliance and Co-operative 
Union of America, and is Secretary of the North Caro- 
lina Farmers' State Alliance. He is a ready writer and 
speaker and is a man of great energy. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 189 

JOSEPHUS DANIELS, Esc^., 

OP RALEIGH, 

Was born at Washington, Beaufort county. May 18th, 
1862. He received a rudimentary education at the Wil- 
son Collegiate Institute. At the age of eighteen he was 
local editor and part owner of the Wilson Advance. A 
year later he became sole editor and owner of that paper. 

In 1882, in company with his brother he commenced 
the publication of the Kinston Free Press. He read law 
under Hon. John Manning at the University in 1885, 
and obtained his license the same year. The day after 
receiving his license to practice he succeeded Capt. Ran- 
dolph A. Shotwell, as editor of the Raleigh State Chroni- 
cle. He has increased the circulation of this paper and 
has made it a potent power for Democracy. The paper 
is rapidly increasing in patronage and reputation. It is 
doubtful if any young man in North Carolina at Mr. 
Daniel's age has ever wielded a greater influence in 
journalism. 

He was married May 2d, 1888, to Miss Addie Bagley, 
of Raleigh, daughter of the late Maj. W. H. Bagley, who 
was for a long time Clerk of the Supreme Court, and 
granddaughter of Gov. Jonathan Worth. 



190 SKETCHES OF 



CLERICAL. 



Et. Eev. THEODORE B. LYMAN, D. D., 

Was born near Boston, Massachusetts, November 27th, 
1815. His father removed to the State of New York 
about one year after his birth, and his early years were 
passed in that State and in New Jersey. 

He graduated at Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, 
in 1837, and in October following entered the General 
Theological Seminary in the city of New York. He 
graduated from that institution June, 1840. He was or- 
dained Deacon September 20th, 1840, in Christ Church, 
Baltimore, by Rt. Rev. W. R. Whittingham, D. D., Bishop 
of Maryland. In October of the same year, he took charge 
of St. John's Church, Hagerstown, Md., where he re- 
mained for about ten years. He was ordained to the 
Priesthood by Bishop Whittingham in Hagerstown, Dec. 
19th, 1841. 

In 1850 he became the Rector of Trinity Church, Pitts- 
burg, Peun., succeeding Dr. Uppold, who had been con- 
secrated as Bishop of Indiana. He remained in that 
charge until the spring of 1850, when he went with his 
family to spend two years in Europe. The subsequent 
breaking out and continuance of the war, determined 
him to remain abroad, and he was instrumental in estab- 
lishing, upon a permanent basis, the American Chapel, 
now St. Paul's Church, Rome, of which he had the charge 
until the autumn of 1869. 

In the autumn of 1870, while still in Europe, he was 
invited to the Rectorship of Trinity Church, San Fran- 
cisco, California. He returned in December to America 
and accepted the charge of that Parish, continuing there 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 191 

until the spring of 1873, when he was chosen Assistant 
Bishop of North Carolina. 

r~ He was consecrated to the Episcopalian Christ Church, 
Raleigh, December 11th, 1873, and became Bishop of the 
Diocese, upon the death of Bishop Atkinson, Jan. 4th, 1881. 

In April, 1886, he was appointed by the Presiding 
Bishop to the charge of the American Church on the 
continent of Europe, and held that office, in conjunction 
with the charge of the Diocese of North Carolina. He 
made accustomed visits to Europe for the supervision of 
the Foreign work committed to his charge. 

His published writings are chiefly sermons and ad- 
dresses. 



Rev. ARNOLD W. MILLER, D. D., 

Arnold W. Miller, D. D., was born in Charleston, S. C, 
and is a graduate of Charleston College and the Theolog- 
ical Seminary at Columbia. He was licensed to preach 
by Charleston Presbytery, and in 1849 was ordained by 
Bethel Presbytery. His first pastorate was in Chester 
District, S. C. ; his second in Charlotte, N. C, for two 
years; his third in Petersburg, Va., from whence, in 1865, 
he was recalled to Charlotte, where he has ever since re- 
mained, the faithful and much loved pastor of the First 
Church. Under his ministry the church has grown and 
prospered greatly. 

Dr. Miller is one of the soundest theologians and ripest 
scholars, as well as one of the ablest and most eloquent 
preachers in the Southern Church. He is a laborious 
student, and a man of remarkable courage, indomitable 
energy, and devoted piety. Decided in his convictions 
and loyal to the truth, he would not, for any considera- 
tion, betray or compromise it. His preaching is doctrinal 
and eminently characterized by the constant and clear 



192 SKETCHES OF 

presentation of the mediatorial office of Christ. His 
style is logical, clear and forcible, and the brightest orna- 
ments of rhetoric and the graces of oratory are called into 
requisition to enforce the truths he so ably presents. A 
distinguishing characteristic of his preaching is his in- 
terest in God's ancient people, Israel, and his reliance 
upon the promises concerning them. He has a most ex- 
cellent library, in which are some of the rarest theologi- 
cal works. As a pastor, he is welcomed among his peo- 
ple as a faithful and tender counsellor, and the little 
children love him as a father. — Presbyterian Encyclopsedia. 



Eev. W. M. ROBEY, D. D. 

This is the age of sham. Pretence is the glittering 
gem that wins the lofty reputation. We are all, it seems, 
coloring our ideas and conduct to suit the popular will. 
Cajolery is the order of the day. To say the plain, un- 
varnished truth, is not always convenient. To say what 
our conscience dictates may lose us a patron. We prefer 
to hesitate and watch the drift of public opinion, and 
then follow in its wake. He who dares to advocate what 
he believes, is destined to have troops of enemies; to 
travel a lonesome and rugged pathway, and to have a 
postponed triumph. But by his courage the public is to 
receive its good; by him are errors to be cleared away, 
and the beacon lights of truth set in the heavens. The 
man who studies to please the masses rather than what 
is good for them, is a poor friend indeed, and his life is 
a failure. 

Dr. Robey is a very striking example of a fearless man 
in his conduct and opinions. He is no respecter of per- 
sons when he has a duty to perform or a truth to ex- 
pound. He is a fine scholar and a deep thinker. He is 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 193 

exceptionally apt in choosing forcible words to express 
his ideas. His capacity for work is great. 

His father was W. A. Robey, and his mother was Eliz- 
abeth Welch. Both were natives of what is now Yadkin 
county, N. C. His father was a plain, unambitious far- 
mer of moderate estate, belonging to what might be called 
the middle class. He had a fair education for his day, 
and being fond of reading was far above the average of 
his class in general intelligence, and the same may be 
said of his mother, who is still living. 

He was born in Yadkin county on the 13th day of No- 
vember, 1832. He grew up on the farm and learned to 
work. When a boy, he worked on the farm in summer 
and went to school a little in winter, as was the common 
custom of that day. His father was an occasional teacher, 
and always encouraged him to read and study. Conse- 
quently he grew up with a fondness for books. His oppor- 
tunities for education were very meager till he was about 
eighteen years old, when he was sent to an academy or 
high school, where he remained several years. When 
he left the academy he was prepared to enter the junior 
class at Emory and Henry College, which he contempla- 
ted doing. But not having the means at hand, he en- 
gaged in teaching, and followed this vocation steadily 
for five or six years, finally abandoning the idea of going 
to college and determining to study law. 

Soon after engaging in this study, he became disturbed 
in mind on the subject of the christian ministry. The 
conviction that it w^as his duty to preach the Gospel grew 
strong as he advanced, till he became almost desperate. 

At length he abandoned Blackstone and turned to the 
Bible to find rest. He was licensed to preach in 1856, 
but continued to teach until the year 1860, when he be- 
came a member of the North Carolina Conference. He 
was ordained to the office of a deacon on entering the 
Conference by Bishop Paine. In 1870 he was elected 
President of Davenport Female College, which posi- 

13 



194 SKETCHES OF 

tion he held till 1876, when the college was accidentally 
burned. 

In 1879 he was elected Principal of Jonesboro High 
School, but remained in charge of it only one year, leav- 
ing it to enter the regular pastorate. 

He was first married in 1857, to Miss Maggie J. Clay- 
well, oldest daughter of the late Peter Claywell, of Yad- 
kin county. His first wife having died, he was married 
a second time to her youngest sister, Miss Mollie S. Clay- 
well, in 1874. 

In addition to his regular ministerial work, he was 
chief editor of the Methodist Advance from 1881 to 1886, 
when he sold it to Rev. Dr. J. B. Bobbitt. On the sale 
of the Advance, at the solicitation of the friends of the en- 
terprise, he became the editor of The Ballot, in the city of 
Charlotte. 

Being transferred from Charlotte to Goldsboro, his con- 
nection with that paper had to cease, and at the solicita- 
tion of the owner of the Advance, his connection with that 
paper was renewed, and he is now joint editor and owner 
with Dr. Bobbitt. 



Bev. jethro rumple, d. d., 

OF SALISBURY, 

Was born in Cabarrus county, N. C, March 10th, 1827. 
The first 18 years of his life were spent on a farm, varied 
by attendance upon the country schools. About the age 
of eighteen he made a profession of religion and soon 
after undertook, by his own exertions, to secure a classi- 
cal education. By teaching and attending neighboring 
academies, he was prepared to enter Davidson College, 
where he graduated with distinction, in 1850. He then 
taught school for several years to defray the expenses of 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 195 

his literary and theological education. In 1854, he was 
received under the care of the Concord Presbytery, and 
the same year entered the Theological Seminary at 
Columbia, S. C, in which the Rev. J. H. Thornwell, D. D., 
was then Professor of Theology, and remained two years. 
He was licensed by Concord Presbytery, July 31st, 1856, 
and was ordained by the same, January 9th, 1857, and 
installed pastor of Providence and Sharon churches, in 
Mecklenburg county, N. C. He served these churches 
four years, when he was called to the Presbyterian church 
at Salisbury, Rowan county, N. C, in the same Presby- 
tery, where he was installed pastor, November 24th, 1860. 
He has continued to be the faithful and beloved pastor 
of this church until the present time. In both of these 
fields his labors have been abundantly blessed. During 
his pastorate of the Salisbury church six young men 
have entered the ministry. The high esteem set upon 
Dr. Rumple's character and abilities by his brethren is 
shown by the varied and responsible positions to which 
they have called him. For more than twenty years he 
has been a Trustee of Davidson College and a Director 
of Union Theological Seminar}^, Virginia. He has been 
a Commissioner to several General Assemblies, and in 
Synod and Presbytery has served the church in well nigh 
all the most honorable and important positions. As a 
pastor, he is prudent, laborious and sympathetic. As a 
preacher, he is earnest, clear, tender and able. As the 
stores of his learning increase, so does his preaching pos- 
sess additional freshness and power. 

Besides his pastoral and Presbyterial duties he has 
made excursions in the field of authorship. For the last 
five years, in the North Carolina Presbyterian^ he has been 
writing up the "History of Presbyterianism in North 
Carolina." These sketches when completed, will be issued 
in a volume, giving a full account of the churches and 
ministers of his native State. In the meantime he pub- 
lished in 1881, a History of Rowan county, N. C. — From 
the Presbyterian Encycloposdia. 



196 SKETCHES OF 



■Jf 



Kev. lieyum skidmore burkhe ad, d. d. 

Born in Davidson county, N. C, February 17th, 
1824. His parents were Methodists of the Old School 
and trained him up in the "nurture and admonition of 
the Lord." They both died in blessed hope of "Eternal 
Life"; his mother at the age of 85, and his father at the 
advanced age of 94 years. 

He was educated at the "Old Field" school and at 
Union Institute, now Trinity College. Converted and 
joined the church in his nineteenth year; taught school 
three years; was received in the N. C. Conference on trial 
November, 1849; ordained deacon by Bishop Andrew, 
1851, and elder by Bishop Paine, 1853. Has been a 
regular itinerant up to date, four years on circuits, ten 
years Presiding Elder on District, and twenty-four years 
on Stations. He has served as Pastor of the Methodist 
churches of Wilmington, Plymouth, Chapel Hill, Salis- 
bury, Tarboro, Greensboro, Fayetteville, N«-w Berne, Ral- 
eigh, Goldsboro, Charlotte and is now in Winston. Many 
souls have been won to Christ through his instrumen- 
tality. He was a delegate to the General Conference in 
1866, and a reserved delegate, 1870; and a delegate to 
every General Conference since. He has been a member 
of the "Board of Missions" since 1872. Was the Minis- 
terial member from N. C. Conference in the "Ecumenical 
Conference" held in London, 1881. 

He has published sermons on "The work and support 
of the Methodist Itinerant Ministry"; "The importance 
of Christian Character"; a book, "Centennial of Method- 
ism in North Carolina," and a "Catechism on the Mode 
of Christian Baptism." Has written frequently for the 
church papers on various subjects. 

Blessed with a fine physical nature, he is now in full 



*Dr. Burkhead died after the above notice was written. He 
died suddenly 2d December, 1887, at the Conference at Fayette- 
ville. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTB CAROLINIANS. 197 

vigor of maDhood and capable of a vast deal of hard 
work in his chosen profession. 

He has been twice married. 

A man of general culture and of large Christian 
charity. While he holds firmly to his convictions of 
truth, he is tolerant and magnanimous. He "thinks and 
lets think," and no man who knows him well, ever thinks 
of losing his friendshij) because of differences of opinion 
or because of fair and earnest opposition to his views. 
He believes truth can never lose anything by an open 
and fair contest with error. 



Key. F. W. E. PESCHAU, 

OF WILMINGTON, 

Was born in Clausthal Zellerfeld, on the Hartz Moun- 
tains, in the kingdom of Hanover, where Muhlenberg, 
the patriarch of American Lutheranism, went to school 
and taught school. It is a city of about 10,000 inhabit- 
ants and has two Lutheran churches, and no other, all 
the people being Lutherans. In 1853, his parents came 
to this country, settling first in Baltimore, but subse- 
quently in Wheeling, West Virginia, where the aged 
father still lives. 

He spent six years in the college and Theological 
Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa. His first charge was at 
Nebraska City, Nebraska, fifty miles south of Lincoln, 
and served by Rev. Eli Huber, D. D., of Philadelphia. 
His second field of labor was Nashville, Tennessee, and 
his present field at Wilmington is his third pastorate. 

As an educator, he has also had considerable experi- 
ence. For three years he was Superintendent of Ger- 
man in the public schools of the city of Evansville, 
Indiana, and Professor of German in the High School. 



198 SKETCHES OF 

At Nebraska City, Nebraska, he was Superintendent of 
the city Public Schools two years, and also Professor of 
German in an Episcopal College, located there. At 
Nashville, Tennessee, he was Professor of German in Dr. 
Ward's Female Seminary, the largest in the South and 
the second largest in the United States. He was also 
Professor of German in Vanderbilt University, but these 
extra labors coupled with his pastoral duties, were too 
much for his system, and he broke down, with an attack 
of typhoid fever, in 1881, which nearly ended his life. 
Since living in Wilmington, he has taught only private 
classes and delivered lectures on educational subjects in 
North Carolina and Tennessee. Sermons, sketches of 
sermons, articles, letters, and poems from his pen have 
appeared in the German and English press of this coun- 
try. He has been one of the editors of the Lutheran 
Visitor for nearly six years. He preaches in German 
and English with equal fluency, ease and accuracy, with 
or without manuscript, and has so far mastered the Dan- 
ish language as to be able to hold services in that lan- 
guage for sailors and officers of the Scandinavian ships 
in the Seaman's Bethel at Wilmington. 

Coupled with these talents of linguistic attainments, 
he has a musical education and has published a number 
of songs, the words and music of which were his own 
composition; notably among these is the "Ode to Jackson," 
sung at the unveiling of the equestrian statute of Andrew 
Jackson, seventh President of the United States, at Nash- 
ville, in 1880, which was published in the extra edition 
of 180,000 copies of the Courier- Journal, Louisville, Ky., 
at the time. He has some new songs in press now. He 
has shown his administrative talents as President of the 
North Carolina Synod, and of the General Synod South, 
and of the United Synod, and no one in the Lutheran 
Church South is more widely known or has received 
more complimentary notice from the press. 

Full of energy and push, and working faithfully at his 
post, under God's blessing he has succeeded in doing a 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 199 

good work in every position he has occupied. This is 
proven by the fact that his congregation at Nashville 
twice offered to call him back, if he would consider a 
call, and his first field of labor recently proposed to do 
the same, if he would come back to it. His congregation 
at Wilmington, a few years ago, unanimously and enthu- 
siastically adopted a resolution requesting him to remain 
its pastor during the days of his natural life. — From the 
Lutheran Home, of March, 1888. 



Rev. JACOB HENRY SMITH, D. D., 

OF GREENSBORO, 

The eldest son of Samuel R. and Margaret Smith, was 
born in Lexington, Rockbridge county, Va , August 
13th, 1820. He was prepared for college in his native 
town, and graduated from Washington College, now 
Washington and Lee University, June 29th, 1843. In 
the fall of the same year, he entered Union Theological 
Seminary, Va., and taking full course, received his cer- 
tificate in 1846, and in August of the same year, he was 
licensed by Lexington Presbytery and transferred to 
West Hanover Presbytery. 

In September of this year, he took charge of the church 
at Pittsylvania C. H., Va., where he was ordained and 
installed July 31, 1847. Being invited to take charge of 
"Samuel Davies Institute," in Halifax county, Va., as 
Principal and Professor of Greek, he went thither in the 
beginning of 1850, and conducted that Institute with 
great success until 1854. At this time he was invited to 
Greensboro, N. C, and Charlottesville, Va. Accepting 
the latter place, he preached at Charlottesville till 1859, 
when he accepted the renewed invitation to Greensboro, 
N. C, and began his work there April 20, 1859. In June 



200 SKETCHES OF 

following, he was received by Orange Presb3^tery and in- 
stalled in July over Greensboro church, where he con- 
tinues to labor with great success and acceptance. 

Dr. Snaith is an accomplished classical and Belles Let- 
tres scholar, a well informed theologian, and fairly abreast 
of the literature of the day. He is the owner of a well- 
selected and a well-read library of sacred and polite lit- 
erature. But his peculiar fort is, that he is a powerful and 
impressive preacher. His sermons are finished and pol- 
ished production?, filled with the choicest thought, and 
garnished with graceful allusions, and enlivened with 
appropriate illustrations. To the polish of the graceful 
composer, Dr. Smith adds the attractions of the skillful 
elocutionist, and the controlling power of a magnificent 
voice. 

The Lord has greatly blessed his labors, granting him 
revival after revival in his own churches, and in others. 
About one thousand souls have been hopefully converted 
under his preaching. He is still active, able, ready to 
preach, and is heard with pleasure wherever he goes. 

In 1872 Hamf)den Sidney College conferred upon him 
the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and in 1877 the Uni- 
versitv of North Carolina repeated the honor. — From the 
Presbyterian Encydopsedia. • 



prominent living north carolinians. 201 
Rev. T. H. PRITCHARD, D. D., 

OP WILMINGTON. 

His father was Joseph Price Pritchard. His mother 
was Eliza Hunter Henderson, of the old North Carolina 
family of that name, among whom were Judge Leonard 
Henderson, of Granville county, his brother JBaldy Hen- 
derson, of Salisbury, Moyer P. Henderson, of Chapel Hill, 
and Samuel Henderson, of Charlotte, N. C. 

Dr. Pritchard was born in Charlotte, N. C, February 
8th, 1832; was fitted for college in Mocksville, Davie 
county, by Rev. Baxter Clegg ; w^as graduated at Wake 
Forest College June, 1854, delivering the valedictory. 
Judge W. T. Faircloth and J. H. Mills were members of 
his class; was for little over a year agent for Wake Forest 
College ; was ordained pastor of the Hertford Baptist 
Church, Perquimans county, in November, 1855. He 
made a profession of faith in Christ while at Wake For- 
est College, in September, 1849, and was baptized by Dr. 
W. T. Brooks. He had at first intended to read law and 
enter the arena of politics. In 1858 he studied theology 
with Dr. John A. Broadus, then pastor of the Baptist 
church of Charlottesville, Va., and took some tickets in 
the University of Virginia. In 1858 he was married to 
Miss Fannie G. Brinson, of New Berne. 

The year 1859 was spent as pulpit supply of the Bap- 
tist church of Fredericksbuig, Va., the pastor, Dr. Wm. 
T. Broad.us, being in the field raising money for the en- 
dowment of the General Theological Seminary, then lo- 
cated in Greenville, S. C. In 1860 he became pastor of 
the Franklin Square church of Baltimore, where he re- 
mained until July, 1863, when, in an attempt to come 
South, he was captured on the Potomac and imjirisoned 
in Baltimore for five weeks, when he was sent through 
the lines with his wife and children, by way of Harper's 
Ferry, Charleston and Winchester. He labored in the 



202 SKETCHES OF 

great revival in the Army of Northern Virginia in the 
fall of 1863, as missionary under appointment from the 
Virginia Army Colportage Board. 

In the absence of the regular pastor, he was sub pastor 
of the First Baptist Church of Raleigh, and held that 
post until June, 1865. He became pastor of tht^ First 
Baptist Church of Petersburg, Va., in July, 1865, one 
week after that church had lost its beautiful house of 
worship. Much of that year was given to collecting 
funds in the North and West to rebuild the edifice. After 
a prosperous pastorate there of two years and a half, he 
was recalled to the First Church of Raleigh, where he 
remained until September, 1879, having served that 
church about thirteen years. The church grew in that 
time from a membership of 240 to 515. While in Ral- 
eigh he was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the 
Raleigh Baptist Female Seminary, and he labored ear- 
nestly and successfully for the establishment of that in- 
stitution. 

In September, 1878, he became President of Wake 
Forest College, and while occupying this position he trav- 
eled extensively over the State, speaking, preaching and 
lecturing on education, and in the three 3^ears he was 
connected with the college the patronage increased from 
117 students to 181. 

In 1882 he accepted the pastorate of the Broadway 
church of Louisville, Ky., but the climate proving too 
severe on his family, he returned to North Carolina, and 
accepted the pastorate of the First Church of Wilmington, 
which position he still occupies. 

Dr. Pritchard has been a Trustee of Wake Forest Col- 
lege for twenty years; for thirteen years a Trustee of 
the General Theological Seminary of Louisville, Ky. 

The degree of D. D. was conferred on him by the State 
University June, 1868, in his 36th year. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 203 

Eev. JACOB CRAWFORD CLAPP, 

PRESIDENT OF CATAWBA COLLEGE, 

Was born in Guilford county, N. C, September 5th, 
1832, near the field of the battle of Alamance, in the 
vicinity of which his great-great-grandfather, a Palati- 
nate German Protestant, settled with his family as the 
second immigrant to that section about 1750. His grand- 
father, then a lad, was a spectator of the battle of Ala- 
mance. His ancestors were all German Protestants; they 
warmly espoused the cause of the patriots in the Revo- 
lution, and from the earliest settlement of that region 
rallied around the standard of their faith at the Old 
Brick church (German Reformed), where many of their 
descendants still worship. 

Mr. Clapp's boyhood and youth were spent in earnest 
toil on the farm and in the mills, with a few months 
during most of the winters in the public schools, in their 
incipiency in the State. At 18, with the most superficial 
knowledge of the rudiments of an English education, he 
left home with the reluctant consent of his father, his 
mother having died four years previous, to fit for college. 
One year of private study with Dr. G. W. Welker, his 
pastor, and three sessions in the preparatory department 
of Catawba College, at Newton, N. C, entered him as a 
probationer in Amherst College in the fall of 1853, from 
which institution he graduated in the class of '57. After 
teaching one year near the old home, part of a year in 
Catawba College and one year in Mississippi, he was 
elected to the chair of ancient lanuguages in Catawba 
College and entered its duties in the fall of 1860, soon 
after his marriage to Miss Emma Lewis, of Mississippi, 
on the 4th of July of the same year. The civil war dis- 
organized the college in 1861. He then commenced an 
academy for boys and girls, which flourished through 
the war, and after its close, was converted into Catawba 



204 SKETCHES OF 

High School, for boys and young men, in which Maj. S. 
M. Finger was associated as co-principal, in 1866. This 
school was highly successful, but Maj. Finger's health 
failing after several years, he resigned his place, which 
has been filled mainly since by Rev. J. A. Foil. In the 
meantime, the trustees of Catawba College elected the 
subject of this sketch. President, which office he still 
holds. In the spring of 1866, he was ordained to the 
Christian ministry by the Classis of North Carolina, 
since which time he has preached regularly, either as 
supply or regular pastor. Ursinus College conferred the 
degree of D. D. upon him several years ago. He was 
the agent to raise funds for the new college building and 
is now agent to raise an endowment fund. Three new 
churches have been built recently in his charge. 

Mr. Clapp is a man of wonderful energy. His early 
habit of handling the plow and the scythe has never 
been abandoned. He is a planter as well as a preacher 
and is an industrious worker in both callings. His ser- 
mons are argumentative, interesting and full of practical 
religion. His original, earnest and vigorous style, his 
perfect articulation and his musical voice, would please 
and attract a congregation in any community. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 205 



EDUCATIONAL, 



Hon. KEMP P. BATTLE, 

PRESIDENT OP THE UNIEVRSITY. 

The effort of Dr. Battle at reorganizing our Univer- 
sity from the ruins of the war, has been a fine success 
and has justly won for him the respect and admiration 
of the people. He is an admirable manager and a man 
of unusual ability. 

He is the first son of Hon. W. H. Battle, for manv 
years one of the Judges of the Supreme Court. 

He was born near Louisburg, in Franklin county, in 
1831. He received an academic education and entered 
the University in 1845, and graduated in '49, dividing 
the honors of his class with Peter M. Hale and Maj. J. 
M. Robinson. After graduation he was for a while tutor 
of Latin and Greek, and for four years tutor of Mathe- 
matics in the University. He was even at this age 
remarkable for keeping order in his classes and making 
his lessons attractive. Many of our prominent men were 
among his pupils, for instance, Hon. A. M. Waddell, 
Hon. Clement Dowd, Col. W. L. Saunders, J. B. Wheeler, 
J. L. Morehead, Jos. A. Engelhard, Judge W. J. Mont- 
gomery, Col. Wm. Bingham, Maj. Robt. Bingham and 
J. W. Graham. 

In 1854, having obtained his license, he located for the 
practice of the law in Raleigh and readily acquired an 
extensive practice. 

In 1860, he entered the arena of politics and ran for a 
seat in the House of Commons, but after a plucky and 
exciting contest, he was defeated by about three votes. 

Dr. Battle was a pronounced Union man prior to the 
proclamation of Lincoln, but he fell in line after this 



206 SKETCHES OF 

with the leading men of the South and pledged himself 
for secession, and was a delegate to the Convention of 
1861. 

All through the war he was an ardent supporter of 
Gov. Vance. On the occasion when the conscript ofiQcers 
threatened to disregard the mandates of the Courts of 
North Carolina in habeas corpus proceedings, Dr. Battle, 
in company with Gov. Bragg, went on a mission to Presi- 
dent Davis to procure positive orders that the process of 
the courts should be regarded, which mission was suc- 
cessful. 

In 1862, Dr. Battle was made President of the Chat- 
ham Railroad Company, which was scattered to the four 
winds by Sherman's army. 

He was elected Treasurer of the State by the General 
Assembly of 1865-'66, and was re-elected by the same in 
1866-'67. His reports were highly commended. They 
showed that he was familiar with the conditions and his- 
tory of the State debt and gained for him a wide reputa- 
tion as a business man. 

By the reconstruction acts of Congress in 1868, he was 
deprived of his oflSce. Since then he has not made an 
effort to re-enter the race for political office. 

In 1869 he was called by the friends of agriculture to 
revive the North Carolina Agricultural Society, which 
had been destroyed by the war. He undertook the task 
with earnestness and in a short time new buildings were 
eredted on the Fair Grounds, old ones repaired, and a 
very creditable fair was held in 1869, which gave a fresh 
impulse to the farming interests. 

He was elected a Trustee of the University in 1862 
and served on its Executive Committee until 1868, when 
the University changed hands. 

He practiced law in Raleigh until 1875, when he was 
selected by the Board of Trustees elected by the Legisla- 
ture, to take the lead in re-organizing the University, and 
was made its President. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 207 

Dr. Battle was married in '55 to Miss Martha Battle, of 
Edgecombe, a distant relative. They have live sons, and 
one daughter, the wife of Dr. R. H. Lewis, of Raleigh. 



Rev. EGBERT L. ABERNETHY, D. D., 

PRESIDENT OF RUTHERFORD COLLEGE. 
"The force of his own merit makes his way," 

There is no more striking instance of a self-made man 
in our State than the gentleman whose name appears 
above. He was born poor, and had not even good health 
with which to fight the battle of life. But he bravely 
faced the world and "carved out his passage" with a 
manly stroke, striking down barrier after barrier and 
wading through the quagmires of poverty and discour- 
agement, till he won a high position among the educators 
of our State. 

Like the late Dr. Craven, of Trinity College, he pos- 
sessed that rare but admirable faculty of inspiring his 
pupils with a laudable ambition. His mental powers are 
strong and he dares say what he thinks. Many a poor 
boy has knocked at the door of his college and received 
a free education. 

Long may he live and may the sons of North Carolina 
long honor him and draw inspiration from his philan- 
thropic career. 

The events of his life are related in an article in the 
** Sunny South " ; 

" Robert L. Abernethy was born in Lincoln county, 
N. C, April 3d, 1822. His grandfather, a near kinsman 
of the great English surgeon, emigrated to North Caro- 
lina before the revolution, was one of the leading pioneers 
both in the struggle for freedom and in the subsequent 



208 SKETCHES OF 

attempts at self-government. Fanny Wetner or White- 
ner, his mother, traced her lineage back to a member of 
the royal Wedner family of Saxe-CoburgGotha, who, 
incited by a proverbial love for adventure, came to this 
country in its early colonial history. At the period in 
which Robert was born the family was broken by war 
and various reverses, and was living in comparative retire- 
ment. The subject of this sketch was heir to great bodily 
aflOiiction, but with it he inherited an energy dauntless 
amid all the combinations of untoward circumstances 
that thronged his pathway. From his arduous farm 
labors he found intervals to collect rudiment iry books; 
and each night, instead of sleep, intense application to 
his studies, by the faggot's flare, was the rest to his over- 
taxed body. Having fitted himself for teaching, at an 
early age he left the farm — so ill-suited to his weak frame 
and ever-growing ambition. Soon after being converted 
to God, he joined the ministry of the M. E Church, 
South. Here he was in his proper element. Methodism, 
just beginning to thrive in that section, owed much to 
the earnest eloquence of the boy-preacher. During three 
years of active service in the South Carolina Conference, 
be received over eleven hundred applicants into the 
church. Then followed nervous prostration, and loca- 
tion ; still he was not discouraged. A large tract of land 
in Burke county was donated for a school, over which 
Mr. Abernethy was to preside. The enterprise flourished. 
From a school of eight students it grew into an academy, 
then a seminary, finally a college. 

In 1869 President Abernethv received the degree of 
A. M. from Trinity College, N. C, and in 1880, D. D. 
from Alfred University, New York. 

Of Rutherford College, over which he now presides, 
it is hard to speak in terms of sufficient encomium. 
Generosity, it is admitted by those who love him least, is 
his chief fault. Over 2,000 indigents have been gratuit- 
ously educated; many of them are filling places of trust 
and honor. Over 1,000 have been converted under his 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 209 

teaching. Dr. Abernethy's generosity is not confined to 
the dispensing of instruction. Many a time his last 
dollar has found its way into the hands of some needy 
supplicant, and often has this unrestrained liberality 
been successful in making him the prey of rogues and 
sharpers. Giving thousands of dollars to charitable 
uses, and struggling hard in the maintenance of a large 
family, he has all his life lived in comparative poverty, 
feeling himself rich in the sole possession of his sublime 
trust in Providence. 

Dr. Abernethy is greatly loved and honored b}' the 
people of his State. He has been a figure in all reforms, 
social and political — voting for principle in preference to 
party — upholding the South and her supporters. For 
years he was a prominent leader in the early temperance 
movements in the State, and in the prohibitory agitation 
of 1881, was bitterly assailed both from the press and 
stump for his manful adherence to what he deemed the 
cause of humanitv and God. 



Rev. LUTHER McKINNON, D. D., 

PRESIDENT OF DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 

Born October 31st, 1840, in Richmond county, N. C. 
He was prepared for college at the academies in that sec- 
tion ; entered Davidson College in 1857 and graduated 
in 1861, sharing first honor. He studied in the The- 
ological Seminary at Columbia, S. C, and was licensed 
to preach by the Fayetteville Presbytery in 1864. 

In 1864 and '65 he was chaplain of the 36th North 
Carolina Regiment. He was ordained Evangelist April, 
1866, by the Fayetteville Presbytery. He was Principal 
of Floral Female College from January, 1865, until 
June, 1866. In 1866 he was called to the Goldsboro 
14 



210 SKETCHES OF 

Presbyterian church, and served as pastor for over four 
years. He was pastor of the Presbyterian church of Con- 
cord from December, 1871, until October, 1883. In 1883 
he was called to Columbia, where he remained from Oc- 
tober of that year until April, 1885. He was elected 
President of Davidson College September, 1885, which 
position he now holds. 

He is a man of great energy, and whatever he under- 
takes he does thoroughly. As a pastor, he attends to or 
closely supervises every little detail of the church gov- 
ernment, besides keeping the strictest watch over his 
congregation. As President of Davidson College, he dis- 
played the same disposition to attend to details, and suc- 
ceeded in increasing the patronage, but for the past year 
or so his health has been broken, and he has been forced 
to retire from active service. He is one of the best preach- 
ers in the State, and one of the purest of men. 



Rev. J. C. PRICE, 

OF SALISBURY. 

The subject of this sketch is, perhaps, the most distin- 
guished negro in America. He is certainly equal to any 
as an orator. He has lectured in England and America 
before the best audiences. He has preached in the pul- 
pit of Henry Ward Beecher, and in many other places 
no less prominent. In the Ecumenical Conference at 
London in 1881, he made a speech of five minutes, which 
was one of the happiest efforts of his life. When his time 
was up, he was greeted with the wildest enthusiasm. In- 
vitations poured in on him to lecture in all parts of Eng- 
land. He remained in England and on the Continent 
one year, lecturing in behalf of his race, and succeeded 
in collecting ten thousand dollars, which enabled him to 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 211 

establish the beautiful buildings now known as Living- 
stone College, Salisbury, N. C. 

He displays no egotism. His lectures are modest. But 
he reasons well ; he thrills his audience with earnest emo- 
tion ; his language is strong, pure and fluent. His ar- 
ticulation is distinct and pleasing. 

He was born in Elizabeth City, N. C, February 10th, 
1854, and is therefore as yet a young man. He is a genu- 
ine negro. His father was a slave, his mother a free but 
unlettered woman. At the age of nine he went with his 
mother to New Berne. She did her part to give him 
an education. Some time after he had learned to read, 
he attended the Lowell Normal School of New Berne. 
For four years he taught in a public school at Wil- 
son, then entered Shaw University of Raleigh in 1873, 
remaining five months. Returning to New Berne, he 
connected himself with the A. M. E. Zion Church, and 
began to preach in less than two years after. Desiring 
to better qualify, himself, he entered the Lincoln Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania, and took a four years' course. He 
won the Freshman and Junior prizes as an orator. In 
1879 he graduated with the valedictory. After gradua- 
tion he remained three years in the Theological Semi- 
nary, completing the course at that place. In 1880 he 
was a delegate to the General Conference at Montgomery, 
Alabama, where his oratory first brought him into promi- 
nence. 

He was delegate to the Centenary Conference which 
met in Baltimore in 1884, and responded to the opening 
address by Bishop Andrews, of the M. E. Church. 

He was recently appointed by President CJleveland 
Minister to Liberia, and was strongly urged by Secretary 
Bayard to accept, but he declined, believing that it was 
for the best interests of his race to continue his work in 
the South. 

The Institute of which he is the head is now doing a 
great work for the negro race. Besides the regular cur- 
riculum, instruction is given in music, printing, dress- 



212 SKETCHES OP 

making, fancy needle work, cooking, laundry work and 
carpentry. Tuition is free, and board is only six dollars 
per month. 



JOHN B. BURWELL, 

PRESIDENT OF PEACE INSTITUTE, 

Is the oldest son of Rev. R. Burwell, D. D., and was 
born in Chesterfield county, Va., Oct. 3d, 1834. In 1835 
his father moved to Hillsboro, N. C, and took charge of 
the Presbyterian church at that place, remaining there 
as pastor until the fall of 1857. 

In 1845 the subject of this sketch entered the Caldwell 
Institute, then in charge of Rev. R. Wilson, D. D., Rev. 
John A. Bingham and Prof. R. H. Graves. 

In 1850 he entered Hampden Sydney College, in Vir- 
ginia, and graduated in 1853 from that institution. From 
the fall of 1853 to the summer of 1859, he was engaged in 
teaching a School for Boys, first in Mecklenburg county, 
Va., afterwards in Charlotte county, Va. In 1859 he 
moved to Charlotte, N. C, and joined his father in the 
management of the Charlotte Female Institute, remain- 
ing there until the summer of 1862, when he entered the 
army, joining the 53d North Carolina Regiment, under 
command of Col. William A. Owens. He remained in 
the army until the surrender at Appomattox Court-House, 
being present when General Lee surrendered. 

Mr. Burwell then returned to Charlotte and continued 
with his father in the control of the Female Institute at 
that place. 

In 1872, at the earnest solicitation of the Directors, he 
and his father moved to Raleigh and organized Peace 
Institute, commencing the exercises in August of that 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 213 

year with about seventy-five pupils. The number of 
pupils has steadily increased, until now the average at- 
tendance is about one hundred and seventy-five, and often 
more. 



Ro^. SIDNEY MICHAEL FINGEE, 

OF NEWTON, 

Born in Lincoln county, the 24th of May, 1837. His 
father was a farmer and tanner, in both of which occu- 
pations he exercised his son assiduously until he was 18 
years old. Prior to that time he had no school fa- 
cilities, except such as were afforded by the public schools, 
which were poorly supported; but in his district the 
school fund was supplemented by private subscriptions, 
and the term of school extended to four months per an- 
num, and some of the higher branches allowed to be 
taught. 

At the age of 18 he entered Catawba College, Newton, 
where he remained four years as pupil, and part of the 
time instructor in some of the lower branches. In 1859 
he entered the junior class of Bowdoin College of Maine ; 
graduated with A. B., 1861 ; received A. M., 1865. He 
entered the Confederate Army as private in Company I, 
11th Regiment. At camp of instruction he was made 
Quarter Master Sergeant. After the battle of Gettysburg 
he was promoted to Captain (Assistant Quarter Master) 
and assigned to collection of tax in kind, with headquar- 
ters at Charlotte, and in charge of that Congressional 
district. In 1864 he was promoted to Major, and put in 
charge of tax in kind for the whole State, in which ca- 
pacity he was serving when the war closed. 

For nine years he was in partnership with Rev. J. C. 
Clapp in conducting Catawba High School at Newton, 



214 SKETCHES OF 

having charge of the property of Catawba College, which 
had lost its endowment during the war. Ill health ne- 
cessitated the abandonment of teaching in 1874. This 
was a matter of much regret, because of his fondness for 
the profession in which he had displayed a marked tal- 
ent. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 
1874. He was elected to the Senate in 1876, and re- 
elected in 1881. 

As a member of the Legislature he was specially inter- 
ested in education, the settlement of the State debt, and 
railroad development. 

He was elected State Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion in 1884, in which capacity he has served with great 
acceptance to the people. 

As a civilian since 1874, when he gave up teaching, he 
has been engaged in merchandising and cotton manu- 
facturing in Newton. 

In 1882 he was appointed by Governor Jarvis a mem- 
ber of the Board of Directors of the Morganton Insane 
Asylum. This was the first Board, and, consequently, 
opened that magnificent institution for the reception of 
patients. He was Chairman of the Board when elected 
State Superintendent. 



F. P. HOBGOOD, Esq,, 

PRINCIPAL OF THE BAPTIST FEMALE SEMINARY OF OXFORD, 

Was born. in Granville county, N. C, one mile from 
Oxford, in 1847. His father, J. B. Hobgood, was the 
pioneer fine tobacco planter in this section, now famous 
for the yellow leaf. He was the first to raise it, and 
from him it spread to others. 

Mr. Hobgood's early life was spent on the farm, until 
he was sent to Oxford to school, first to a celebrated 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 215 

teacher, Prof. Tuley, afterwards to the Horner School. 
Before his preparatory education was completed he went 
into the Confederate service under the 17 year old call — 
took part in the battle of Bentonsville 

After the surrender he re-entered the Horner School, 
from which he graduated in January, 186G. Then he 
entered Wake Forest and graduated in 1868. 

In October of that year, he married the daughter of 
Rev. W. Royall, D. D., one of the Professors of Wake 
Forest College. In the meantime he taught in a Female 
College at Oxford. In January, 1869, he commenced a 
High School at Reidsvilie, N. C, and taught there for 
two years. Two of the prominent lawyers of Rocking- 
ham county, Hugh R Scott and Reuben Reid, were pre- 
pared for college by him. 

In January, 1871, he closed his Academy at Reidsvilie 
to take a position as Professor in the Raleigh Baptist 
Female Seminary, and on the retirement of the President 
of that Institute in June of that year, he became Presi- 
dent and conducted the school for over nine years, closing 
it in June, 1880, to remove to Oxford. He has been 
teaching there ever since. 

He was President of the last Baptist State Sunday- 
school Convention, and has for seven years been the 
Moderator of the Flat River Association, He is also 
Superintendent of the Baptist Sunday-school at Oxford, 
and Chairman of the Board of Education of Granville 
county. 

Mr. Hobgood has six children, three boys and three 
girls. 



216 SKETCHES OF 



MILITARY. 



Gen. ROBERT RANSOM, 

OF NEW BERNE. 

It seems that this man was born for a soldier. He has 
the fine physical bearing and the stern and commanding 
face. No better or more graceful horseman ever sat in a 
saddle. 

His princely manners and his easy, dignified mien 
mark him as a gentleman of the most refined type. 

He was born at Bridle Creek, Warren county, N. C, 
February 12th, 1828. 

His father was Robert Ransom, the oldest son of Sey- 
mour Ransom and his wife,Birchett, whose maiden name 
was Green, the daughter of William Green and his wife 
Mary, nee Christmas. 

Seymour Ransom was the youngest son of James Ran- 
som and his wife Priscilla, nee Jones, the daughter of 
Edward Jones and Abigail Shugan. James Ransom's 
wife was the widow of Col. Macon and the mother of 
Nathaniel Macon, so famous in North Carolina. 

General Ransom's mother was Priscilla West Cofiield 
Whitaker, daughter of Matt Cary Whitaker, of Halifax 
county, N. C, and his wife, Elizabeth Ann, nee CoflSeld. 

Matt Cary Whitaker was the only child of Gough 
Whitaker and his wife Martha, nee Cary, and the son was 
named after his mother. Elizabeth A. Coffield was the 
daughter of David Coffield and West Duck, his wife. 

All of General Ransom's grand parents were born in 
North Carolina, the paternal in what is now Warren 
county, the maternal in Halifax county. 

The great-grand parents came from Virginia, those on 
the father's side principally from Gloucester county, and 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 217 

on the mother's from Warwick county. Legend says 
that the Whitaker family descended from Alexander 
Whitaker, the English Church Minister who baptized 
Pocahontas, showing the family to have been among the 
very first white settlers of the continent. 

General Robert Ransom was the third child of his 
parents, the oldest, a daughter, dying in her tenth year, 
and the second the present United States Senator, Matt. 
W. Ransom. 

General Robert Ransom, previous to his entrance into 
the United States Military Academy, was educated by 
Robert Ezell, at Warrenton, N. C, where, not loving 
books, he acquired an imperfect acquaintance with Latin, 
Greek and Arithmetic. He had previously been to vari- 
ous teachers, none more than six months at a time, and 
in different places. 

In August, 1846, he was appointed a Cadet at West 
Point by Hon. J. R. J. Daniel, the appointee made earlier 
not having entered at the regular time in June, and he 
began his course at the Military Academy in a class of 
121 members, and graduated 18th out of 44. 

He with a young man from Texas — Anderson by name, 
were the first instances known to have been appointed 
Corporals in the corps of Cadets without passing through 
the hard military routine of a full encampment. 

He was never a student but was a thorough soldier, 
and fond of those employments requiring physical action 
with force and energy combined. He was the best horse- 
man of his earlier days in or out of the army, and has 
lost little of his powers in that line. 

Upon graduating from West Point, in 1850, he was 
assigned to the 1st Dragoons (there were only three 
mounted regiments then), and in October went to duty at 
the Cavalry Depot, Carlisle Barracks, Pa., where he 
remained till March, 1851, whence he carried a detacli- 
ment of troops to Fort Leavenworth.. Kansa?, and in May 
accompanied the command uf Col. E. V. Sumner to New 
Mexico. He was engaged in scouting over the whole of 



218 SKETCHES OF 

New Mexico, most of Arizona, great parts of Texas, and 
Colorado, and Utah, for nearly four years. In the autumn 
of '54 he was placed on duty at West Point Academy as 
Instructor of Cavalry, while Col. R. E. Lee was Superin- 
tendent, and in March following, i. e. '55, was promoted 
to the 1st Cavalry, one of four new Regiments, added to 
the army at that time, and made 1st Lieutenant, the 
appointment stating, "with a view to his special appoint- 
ment as Adjutant " 

He joined his Regiment in July, which w^s to be 
organized at Fort Leavenworth, and spent that fall in 
scouting. 

The next year and a half or more he was in Kansas 
during the ''border troubles" and was with the Regi- 
ment at Topeka, July 4th, '56, when Col. Sumner dis- 
persed the Assecpbly called a legislature, and there met 
the notorious John Brown. For a short time he was 
again on duty at Carlisle Barracks in '57, owing to ill 
health, but resigned the Adjutancy of the regiment on 
that account. 

Until the beginning of the war in '61, he was chiefly in 
Kansas and Colorado, and was at Fort Wise, on upper 
Arkansas River, and early in '61 he was appointed a 
captain of Cavalry. On 24th May, '61, when he heard 
his State had left the Union, he resigned, and on the 4th 
day of July, '61, he arrived in North Carolina and passed 
the day at Warren ton. 

Governor Ellis had him appointed Colonel of the 1st 
N. C. Cavalry, which he organized near Ridgeway, War- 
ren county, and on 13th of October, '61, started with it 
to Virginia. 

During the winter of '61-'62, he was its Colonel, and 
in November, '61, led successfully the first encounter 
between the Cavalry of the two armies. 

Just as General J. E. Johnston retired from Centreville 
in '6 \ Ransom was promoted Brigadier General for the 
special purpose of being sent to organize the Cavalry of 
Generals A. S. Johnson and Beauregard in the West 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 219 

and Southwest. But New Berne having fallen, he was 
directed to the eastern part of North Carolina, where he 
was engaged in keeping the Federals at New Berne from 
penetrating to the westward. 

In June, '62, he was put in conamand of a Brigade of 
North Carolina Infantry and was with Holmes and 
Huger during the seven days' fighting — and with Huger 
at Malvern Hill, where his Brigade made the last charge 
upon the enemy, leaving some of its dead among the 
Federal guns. 

With this brigade a little changed he was a part of 
J. G. Walker's Division in the first Maryland campaign, 
'62. 

He was at the fall of Harper's Ferry, and in the battle 
of Sharpsburg. Stationed early in the morning of Sep- 
tember 17th, '62, upon the extreme right, but at 9 a. m. 
double quicked to the left center where the enemy had 
penetrated the Confederate lines driving the enemy back 
and holding the position until the Confederates withdrew 
on the night of September 18th. 

He was with General Lee's army until after the battle 
of Fredericksburg, 13th of December '62, and commanded 
a Division (what had been Walker's), and "was in special 
charge of Marye's and Willis Hills." (General Lee's 
ofiicial report; and of the point attacked, Longstreet's offi- 
cial report). 

In January, '63, he was ordered with division to North 
Carolina, to repel attack on Wilmington and Weldon 
-Railroad. He w^as in North Carolina till May, '63, when 
promoted to Major-General and put in command of 
Richmond when D. H. Hill went to Bragg's army. He 
was about Richmond till July, when illness forced him 
to go to Virginia Springs. In earl}' fall or late summer 
he was made President of Court of Inquiry at Atlanta, 
Georgia, to report upon the campaign which ended in 
the fall of Vicksburg, but orders were received suspend- 
ing its operations. Howell Cobb and John Echols were 
the other members. 



220 SKETCHES OF 

In October, '63, he went to command in East Tennes- 
see. Drove the Federals as far South as Knoxville, and 
in November had a brigade of Yankee Cavalry captured 
at Rogersville. Went to Longstreet before Knoxville, 
but he had left the place. He remained in East Ten- 
nessee, under Longstreet and Buckner, commanding 
Cavalry, till April, '64, and then was ordered to Rich- 
mond ''for other and distant service." The intention 
was to put him in command of Trans-Mississippi De- 
partment, but the condition of affairs at Richmond — 
caused his assignment to command in and for the pro- 
tection of the Confederate Capital. 'Here he had to 
meet Butler's movement at Bermuda Hundred and Sheri- 
dan's and Kantz's raids — and with only a handful of 
men at his disposal. He commanded Beauregard's 
left wing at Drury's Bluff, May 16th, '64, and crushed 
the enemy's right. He was highly complimented by 
Beauregard in a special order the day after the battle. 
But Beauregard, realizing his own failure, attempted to 
make a scapegoat of Ransom. 

In June, '64, he was sent to command Early's Cavalry 
in his movement to meet Hunter — and was with Early 
all through the march to the rear of Washington in July, 
'64. He was taken sick and relieved August 15th, '64, 
and was on leave till September, when he was sent as 
President of Court of Inquiry to investigate outrages 
reported done by Morgan's last raid into Kentucky. 

In November, '64, he was sent to the command of 
Charleston and surrounding country. But he was taken 
again sick and relieved in December, '64. No other 
duty; surrendered to General Howard at Warrenton, 
N. C, May 2d, 1865. 

Since then has been Express Agent and Marshal of the 
City of Wilmington, N. C. He has also done some farm- 
ing, and for full ten years has been Assistant Engineer 
in charge of Government Improvements upon the water 
ways of Eastern North Carolina. He now resides at 
New Berne. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 221 

General Ransom has been twice married, first on Feb- 
ruary 7th, '56, at Washington, D. C, to Minnie Huntt, 
oldest daughter of the late Dr. H. Huntt, and there were 
born to them nine children, eight living. Two daughters 
married, the oldest to F. M. Williams, Newton, N. C. 
The second to Geo. Bell, Jr., Lieutenant United States 
Army. Oldest son in dry goods house, New York. Second 
son married. Third son teaching in Alamance county, 
N. C. Third daughter single and with him. Fourth 
and fifth sons at school. 

On 7th of February, 1881, his first wife died at New 
Berne, N. C, and on the 10th day of September, 1884, he 
married Katharine DeWitt, the widow of the late F. G. 
Lumpkin, of Athens, Georgia, at the house of her father, 
DeWitt F. Wilcox, Columbus, Georgia, and to them have 
been born two children, the oldest a daughter, that died 
recently, the second a son. 

General Ransom, without being a robust man, is one of 
great endurance and toughness, for he is still vigorous 
and active although having suffered much from repeated 
attacks of severe illness. 

He has written little or nothing of his military his- 
tory — trusting to official records to do him justice, but the 
extraordinary productions published by some prominent 
characters of the War between the States, may force him 
to bring to public view what the official record is. 

To that record he refers all who desire facts upon which 
to rest opinion or from which to learn the truth. The 
records are under process of accurate compilation at the 
"Record Office" in Washington, and he has recently 
referred with profit and great satisfaction to what is there 
preserved and accessible to any and all who seek reliable 
knowledge. 



222 SKETCHES OF 

Gei^. eufus bakeinger, 

OF CHARLOTTE. 

General Barringer is one of the most noted Republicans 
in the State ; a man of strong convictions, bold utterances, 
and of fidelity to his principles. He was a strong Whig, 
and bitterly denounced secession as fraught with untold 
troubles and dangers to the country. Since the war he 
has been an earnest supporter of the National Republican 
party, but he has not degraded himself by his political 
bearing. 

Notwithstanding his national proclivities, he remains 
devoutly true to the sentiments and memories of the Con- 
federate cause. He writes often for the press in illustra- 
tion and vindication of the cause as it then stood, and is 
most liberal and generous to its war-worn heroes and 
veterans. 

He is a man of general culture; fond of literature and 
history, and has always been interested in political science. 
He has stood out against the "Rip Van Winkleism" of 
the State, and labored hard for reform in many ways — 
especially judicial, agricultural and educational reform. 
He longs to see the young men of North Carolina coming 
to the front in something else than politics, and he be- 
lieves the literature, and especially the history of the 
State, a most proper and attractive theme. 

He is now much interested in Industrial Education, 
and is a trustee of the '' North Carolina College of Agri- 
culture and Mechanic Arts." As a specimen of his lit- 
erary style and an explanation of the principles of In- 
dustrial Education, a portion of an article written by 
him for the Charlotte Chronicle, is copied : 

* * * "The leading object is not to teach trades, arts or 
science, as such, or for the purpose of turning out from schools 
artisans, agriculturists, trained cooks, skilled dress makers, or 
skilled machinists of any sort, but to instruct children and pupils. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 223 

as a part of general education, in the elementary or foundation 
principles of all art, science, mechanics, and other practical knowl- 
edge; and this, not by teaching theories, but by learning "to do 
things." It is all on the principle of the Kindergarten, but ex- 
tended to agriculture, domestic life, plain mechanics, the use of 
tools, etc., and simply to the end that the boy or girl, when so 
taught in his or her separate school, can the more readily take 
up, if desired in after life, any sort of business, or one specially 
suited to the particular line or talent distinctively manifested in 
the early training. True, the modern agricultural and mechani- 
cal colleges are intended primarily to make farmers and mechan- 
ics, but they do not teach them art as such, as a school of the- 
ology, medicine, or law, turns out its preachers, doctors, and law- 
yers. Tney only give them sound first principles in all depart- 
ments of practical life ; but they do this, not by theory, as in the 
old high school or college, but by showing the pupil how to do 
the things intended and putting them to doing them. And this 
again, based on the aphorism of Bacon, that ' Education is the 
cultivation of a just and legitimate familiarity betwixt the mind 
and things,' and the more simple axiom of Cominius, ' Let things 
that have to be done be learned by doing tliem^'' and all summed 
up in the grand conception of Carlyle, that ' Tools constitute 
the great civilizing agency of the world.' ' Man without tools is 
nothing : with tools he is all.' 

" The idea is very old, and lay at the bottom of the highest of 
past civilizations. But in time the so-called University system 
undertook to teach all knowledge, and finally drifted into noth 
ing but dbstraction, and caused Bacon again to say that the Uni 
versity, in fact, taught 'nothing but to 'believe.'' Froebel fairly 
started the new movement by his Kindergarten, and now the 
whole industrial world marches with giant strides towards the 
' Manual Training School,' and the ' Agricultural and Mechanical 
College.' It is not intended that these shall supersede the 
'Academy,' the ' High School,' or the 'University.' The work of 
art and science, however, can be better and more satisfactorily 
taught in the shop and on the model farm, separate and distinct 
from all other teaching and training ; thus, too, avoiding all class 
prejudices and difficulties. 

" But the advocates of the old school must learn to recognize 
the just claims of the new methods. A feeling is abroad that the 
classic course has a tendency to slight and degrade work, and it 
certainly has had some effect in making labor a drudgery. It has 
not taught or trained either men or women ' how to do things,' 
how to accomplish the work of life, how to make success easy 
and pleasant. It has rather led the masses to believe that suc- 
cess is won more by wit and sharp ways than by honest toil and 
healthful work, aided and made both agreeable and profitable 



224 SKETCHES OF 

by a skilled hand, a trained eye and a delicate touch. And thus 
it cotnes that no class amongst us is early or well trained in the 
work or business of life, and when the day of trial comes in real 
earnest, so many fail and give up in despair and disgust, often 
going to the 'ditch and the dogs,' to the great mortification of 
friends and admirers, and often to their ruin. 

***** #** 

"A training or industrial school would be the very thing for 
Charlotte, and in due time it must come. But I also desire to 
see the idea introduced in our common public schools. It is not 
so diflaeult as supposed, and for the use and application of the 
elementary principles, the appendage of a small shop and kitchen, 
with a few tools and fixtures, would be all likely to be needed in 
the common free school for a long while. Of course the ' old 
fogies,' the ' professionals,' and all party politicians will cry 'in- 
novation,' 'infidelity,' ' high taxes, ' ' wild extravagance,' 'vision- 
ary notions,' and all sorts of hydra-headed monsters." 

The subject of this sketch was born December 2, 1821, 
in Cabarrus county ; educated at Sugar Creek Academy 
and Chapel Hill, graduating in 1842. 

He studied law under Hon. D. M. Barringerand Chief 
Justice R. M. Pearson ; settled and practiced at Concord 
till 1866, and then at Charlotte till 1884, when he retired 
from the bar and went to farming. 

He was in the Legislatures of 1848-49 and 1850-51 ; 
was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1875. 

He entered the army in 1861 as Captain of a company 
of cavalry raised by him in Cabarrus. In May of the 
same year, his company was attached to the famous First 
North Carolina Cavalry Regiment, with which he re- 
mained until June, 1864, when he was promoted from 
the Lieutenant-Colonelcy of that regiment to the position 
of Brigadier-General of Cavalry, in which he served until 
the 3d of April, 1865, when he was captured on Lee's re- 
treat and sent to Fort Delaware, where he remained a 
prisoner of war four months. 

He was in seventy-six actions, received three wounds, 
and had two horses struck under him. He was never 
defeated in action except in the last retreat, when his no- 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 225 

ble brigade was cat to pieces, especially at Chamberlain 
Run, Five Forks, and Namozine Church. 

He came out decided for colored suffrage as early as 
1865; accepted the Reconstruction Acts of 1867, and has 
ever since co-operated with the National Republican 
party. He has occasionally opposed the men and meas- 
ures of that party, but has stood unswervingly by its 
principles, which he is honestly convinced are the only 
principles that can pacify and save the country in its 
new and changed conditions. 



Hon. R. B. VANCE, 

OP BUNCOMBE, 

Was born on Reems Creek, Buncombe county, N. C, 
the 28th of April, 1828, and was named for Dr. Robert 
B. Vance, who was killed in a duel with Samuel P. Car- 
son, October, 1827, at Saluda Mountain, S. C. 

His education was very limited, being confined to the 
"old field" schools, as they were called in that day. 

He was elected Clerk of the Court of Pleas and Quar- 
ter Sessions for Buncombe county in 1848, and served 
eight years, voluntarily declining a re-election. He fol- 
lowed the mercantile business awhile in Asheville. 
When the war broke out he raised a company. The Bun- 
combe Life Guards, and was elected Captain, When ten 
companies were mustered at Asheville, N. C, to-wit : 
Company A, Captain William Walker, Cherokee ; Com- 
pany B, Captain W. B. Creasman, Yancey; Company C, 
Captain J. M. Lowry, Buncombe; Company D, Captain 
John A. Jervis, Madison; Company E, Captain Hiram 
Rogers, Haywood; Company F, Captain W. A. Enloe, 
Jackson; Company G, Captain M. Chandler, Yancey; 
Company H, Captain R. B. Vance, Buncombe; Company 
15 



226 SKETCHES OF 

I, Captain John C. Blaylock, Mitchell ; Company K, Cap- 
tain B. S. Profitt, Yancey, an election was held for Colo- 
nel, and R. B. Vance received every vote in the regi- 
ment but his own. 

Captain Wm. Walker, Lieutenant Colonel, Captain B. 
S. Profitt, Major. 

The regiment, the 29th North Carolina, was re-organ- 
ized at Cumberland Gap, Kentucky, in 1862, according 
to law, and Vance was re-elected Colonel. He was in 
several engagements at Cumberland Gap, in 1862, and 
commanded his regiment in the battle of Murfreesboro, 
under Generals McCown, Polk and Hardee. Col. Vance 
was complimented for gallantry in the report of General 
McCown. His horse was killed at Murfreesboro. 

After the army under General Bragg fell back to 
Shelbyville, Tennessee, in 1863, Col. Vance was taken 
with typhoid fever, and while down, his regiment was 
ordered to Mississi{)pi, and he never was in command of 
it afterwards. 

When he returned to the army in September, 1863, 
-General Bragg assigned him to duty in Western North 
•Carolina, and he was captured at Cosby Creek, Cook 
county, Tennessee, the 14th January, 1864, by his riding 
into a squad of Federal troops through a mistake. 

General Vance was appointed Brigadier in June, 1863, 
iby President Davis, his commission coming to hand 
while he. was unconscious with typhoid fever. 

General Vance was kept in prison, first at Nashville, 
then Louisville, Camp Chase, Ohio, and lastly at Fort 
Delaware. 

While at Fort Delaware he was selected in company 
with General Beale to buy clothing for the Confederate 
prisoners of war, which duty engaged his attention until 
he was sent home on parole, the 14th March, 1865. His 
parole read, "until exchanged." As he was never 
exchanged he is still a prisoner. 

General Vance was elected to Congress from the 8th 
District of North Carolina in the following years : 1872, 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 227 

1874, 1876, 1878, 1880 and 1882, and served in the 43d, 
44th, 45th, 46th, 47th and 48th Congresses, being on the 
Committee of Pensions for 1812, in the 43d Congress, on 
Coinage in 44th Congress and on Patents from 44th to 
48th inclusive, of which committee he was chairman 
except in the 47th Congress. 

General Vance's principal speeches were on the civil 
rights bill, on the Internal Revenue and the tariff, on 
fraternity and the coinage of silver. 

At the Congressional Convention at Asheviile, N. C, 
in 1884, he declined and withdrew his name from the 
Convention. He aided by a hot campaign in the elec- 
tion of his successor, and in the election of President 
Cleveland'. 

On the 11th of April, 1885, he was appointed by the 
President, Assistant Commissioner of Patents, which 
position he now fills. ^ 

General Vance was twice elected Grand Master of 
Masons in North Carolina, and has also filled the posi- 
tion of G. W. P. of the Sons of Temperance in his State. 
He is a member of the M. E. Church, South, in which 
capacity he has been honored by the church in being 
several times elected to the General Conference. 

He was also one of the Cape May Commission, 
which in a measure settled the property question between 
the M. G. Church and the M. E. Church, South, in 1875. 

The college of Bishops also appointed him a delegate 
to the Ecumenical Methodist Conference in London, in 
1881. 

General Vance has lectured extensively in North 
Carolina, some in Maryland, Virginia and in Washing- 
ton City, on Temperance and the Sunday-school cause. 

He is author of a book of poems called ''Heart Throbs 
from the Mountains," and is now writing on "Oneka, or 
The White Plume of the Cherokees," and "Lights and 
Shadows of Mountain Life." 



228 SKETCHES OF 



COMMERCIAL. 



Hon. K. E. BRIDGEKS, 

OP WILMINGTON. 

Among North Carolinians there is no more prominent 
example of an able business man than the subject of this 
sketch. 

The following extract from one of his letters to a friend 
will give the key to his success: 

" From 1845, when I went regularly to work, I did not 
leave the county for nearl}^ eight years, except on busi- 
ness ; I was always at my office at office hours when I 
was not engaged at business. Men depend more on hard 
work, good habits and economy for success, than mere 
intellect. When I look back to my schoolboy days I 
have found, of the several hundred with whom I was at 
school, that the success of the coming man was more 
foreshadowed by the industrious and good habits of the 
boy than by the boy's natural capacity. My business 
has caused me to employ hundreds of young men ; the 
first question I ask is, "what are his habits?" the next 
is, "how much work can he do?" This is the key to suc- 
cess. Then I ask what is his capacity. A young man 
of a fair, ordinary capacity can accomplish any usual 
business undertaking if he will do enough work; try, 
try, and success will sooner or later come. Of course, 
good integrity is a necessity in all positions in life; 
without jt no man can have permanent success." 

The facts of his life are taken from the "Way Bill," of 
New York : 

" Robert Rufus Bridgers was born in Edgecombe county, 
N. C, November 28th, 1819. Graduated with highest 
honors in class of '41, at the University of North Caro- 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 229 

lina. During his collegiate course he studied law and 
was licensed to practice a week after graduation. In 
1844 was sent to the Legislature, being the youngest 
member of that body and serving as a member of the 
Judiciary Committee. After this he withdrew from poli- 
tics and devoted his time to planting and the practice of 
his profession, attending courts 25 to 30 weeks in the 
year, and becoming a leading practitioner in the Circuit. 
During this time he declined the office of Attorney-Gene- 
ral and Judgeship of Circuit Court. In 1851 was 
appointed President of Branch Bank of North Carolina. 
From a very small patrimony he became one of the 
largest cotton planters in the State of North Carolina. 
In 1856 was sent to the Legislature and continued there 
till '61, being a recognized leader in the House of Com- 
mons greater part of the time, and was Chairman of 
Judiciary Committee. Was a member of the Confeder- 
ate Congress during the entire war, serving on the Mili- 
tary Committee; and being a member of the Special 
Finance Committee in addition thereto during the second 
term. At the close of the war was elected President of 
the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad with almost 
unanimous vote, and, by his endorsements of the paper 
of the company and individual efforts, the road was 
saved from foreclosure. Had the policy urged by him 
during the war been adopted, the road, instead of being 
worn out and on the verge of bankruptcy, would have 
been in a healthy financial condition, with money 
enough to renew and equip it and meet its floating debt. 
As an evidence of its condition in '65, the schedule time 
for the first six months was 10 miles per hour, taking 16 
hours from Wilmington to Weldon, a distance of 162 
miles. In the Fall of 1868 financial aid was secured 
through Messrs. Wm. T. Walters and B. F. Newcomer, of 
Baltimore, who ever afterwards proved fast friends of the 
subject of this sketch and of the road. Through their 
efforts and the aid of their counsel and financial help 
the foundation was laid of the great "Atlantic. Coast 



230 SKETCHES OF 

Line." Col. Bridgers has been 20 times re-elected Presi- 
dent of the Wilmington and Weldon road by unanimous 
vote. Has been also President of other roads of the 
Atlantic Coast Line System, from time of their acquisi- 
tion to the present. He not only discharged the duties 
of President, but for 13 years was General Manager. 
During the past 12 months, on account of his increasing 
age and the business devolving on him, he requested the 
Directors to relieve him of the latter office, and, at his 
request, H. Walters, Esq., was appointed General Mana- 
ger. 

No Railroad Company has a better organization or 
more efficient officers than the Coast Line. The Disci- 
pline is good and the selection for places admirable. For 
many years there has been a rule of the company to pro- 
mote their own men, which has a good effect on the 
young employees. They feel that they have something 
to hope for in the way of promotion. It shows bad 
training to have to go to the organization of other 
Railroads to recruit officers. In case of vacancy, no 
position of the 'Coast Line is so important, but it can 
be filled efficiently by some other man brought up in 
the service. 

Mr. Bridgers was a member of the Committee on Mili- 
tary Affairs in both sessions of the Confederate Congress, 
which often brought him in conference with the military 
leaders. He commanded the confidence of President 
Davis and Cabinet, in a high degree. 

Among many of the best men of the State there was 
great fear of an iron famine during the war. At the 
request of the Government and his advisers, he and his 
brother. Col. J. L. Bridgers, were requested to engage in 
the production and manufacture of iron. They pur- 
chased the High Shoals iron property lying in the coun- 
ties of Lincoln, Gaston and Cleveland, rebuilding the 
furnaces, forges, rolling mills, nail factory and founda- 
ries. To a large extent the States of North and South 

I 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 231 

Carolina became depeudeut on these works for iron fab- 
rics, especially nails and plow fabrics. In this they had 
marked success. The failure of the health of Col. J. L. 
Bridgers caused the chief management to devolve on the 
subject of this sketch. These iron works became the 
second iron works in size and importance in the Con- 
federacy and did much Government work. 

Mr. Bridgers has had some success in planting, mer- 
chandising and making turpentine. Indeed, in what- 
ever he undertakes he shows remarkable thrift. He is a 
man of great energy and perseverance. His motto has 
always been "if at first you don't succeed try, try again." 

He is now nearly seventy years old, with unimpaired 
faculties, enjoyiiig the fruits of his life's labor and a wide 
popularity which he has paid for in good habits and 
hard work. . 



JULIAN SHAKESPEARE CARR, 

OF DURHAM. 

" A hand as fruitful as the land that feeds us, 
His dews fall everywhere." 

The South cannot boast of a more popular or deserv- 
ing business man than Mr. Carr, He is, perhaps, the 
richest man in our State. His success is most remarka- 
ble, yet it is by no means beyond the reach of others 
who may desire to imitate his example. He has not come 
by his wealth by speculation, but he has won every 
dollar by his frugality and foresight. He has thrown his 
entire soul into his work, and has become master of the 
largest tobacco manufactory in the world, and the head 
of a firm which is known as far as civilization extends. 

He lias made it a point to manufacture a good article, 



232 SKETCHES OF 

SO that his extensive advertising would not misrepresent 
his goods. 

He has shown himself as generous as he is rich, and, 
like the widow's cruse of oil, his supply is unfailing. He 
has given thousands of dollars to colleges, churches, and 
various other objects too numerous to mention. No 
worthy object ever appeals to him in vain. 

Not only is he generous, but he is a patriot. He finds 
time to keep abreast with the issues and enterprises af- 
fecting the general welfare of the State. He lends a help- 
ing hand and takes a lively interest in promoting many 
of our manufacturing, building, educational and religious 
enterprises. 

To heighten all, he is a conscientious and consistent 
christian. In domestic life, he is one of the best of men : 
a true and devoted husband, an affectionate father and a 
pleasant and affable fireside companion; in friendship, 
he is constant, and in all his affairs he is manly and 
sincere. 

His great business ability, his strict adherence to hon- 
est principles in his transactions, his record of frugality, 
the conspicuous example he has given of the compati- 
bility of great generosity with great wealth, his zealous 
interest in the vital institutions of our State, and his high 
honor and domestic virtues — these things conspire to ren- 
der him one of the finest characters that North Carolina 
has ever produced, and one of her greatest benefactors. 

As an evidence of the high estimation in which he is 
everywhere held, a few of the positions he now occupies 
are enumerated : 

President of Blackwell's Durham Co-operative Tobacco 
Company. 

President of First National Bank of Durham. 

President of Durham Electric Lighting Company. 

President of Atlantic Hotel Co., Morehead City. 

President of Golden Belt Manufacturing Company of 
Durham. 

President of Tobacco Association of North Carolina. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 233 

President of Board of Trustees of the Methodist Feraale 
Seminary of Durham. 

President of the Greensboro Female College Associa- 
tion. 

Vice-President of Durham and Lynchburg R. R. Co. 

Vice-President of Durham Street Railway Co. 

Vice-President of the Durham Cotton Manufacturing 
Company. 

Member of Executive Committee of Board of Trustees 
of the University. 

Member of Executive Committee of N. C. Agricultural 
Society. 

Member of Executive Committee of the National To- 
bacco Association of the United States. 

Trustee of Trinity College. 

Director of Oxford Orphan Asylum. 

The following is from the PlaiUer^s Joitr^ia^ of Missis- 
sippi : 

" He was born on the 12th of October, 1845, at Chapel 
Hill, only twelve miles from his present home. While 
yet a boy he entered the army, and came out as he went 
in, 'a high private in the rear rank,' as he expressed it 
when in the company of a party of Colonels and Majors. 
He obtained a fair education at the University of North 
Carolina, and soon after the war, like so many other mis- 
guided young men in the older States, he was induced to 
believe that the West was the place to make his fortune. 
And so he went off to Arkansas — to Little Rock, which 
was perhaps the best place he could have selected. There 
he bad that measure of success which most industrious, 
sober, intelligent young men meet with wherever they 
may go, and in all probability he might by this time 
Lave been one of the leading men of the Arkansas Capi- 
tal had he remained there. But it happened that during 
a visit to his native State his relatives persuaded him to 
settle closer to home. At that time (1870) Messrs. Black- 
well & Green were doing a very safe, snug little tobacco 
manufacturing business at Durham, and were looking 
about for a partner, with a view to enlarging it. For a 



234 SKETCHES OF 

few thousand dollars young Carr bought a third interest 
with them, and this was the beginning of his career as a 
tobacco manufacturer. From the very day of his en- 
trance into the firm, the foundation for what is now five 
times the largest smoking tobacco establishment in the 
world, commenced being laid. Not with stone and 
mortar, for they staid in their little wood factory several 
years longer, but in head work and hand work. 

" For seven years the bulk of the firm's profits were 
spent in advertising. Of course that advertising would 
have proven futile in the end, had it misrepresented the 
articles; but neither pains nor expense were spared in 
giving the public all that it had been led to expect. 

" In the course of a few years the demand for the Bull 
Durham tobacco had reached such a point that the ca- 
pacity of the original factory was utterly inadquate to 
supply it. So a large brick building was constructed, 
which, it was thought by many, would for all time to 
come furnish ample floor space for manufacturing all the 
goods that the firm could market, i^year or two, how- 
ever, sufficed to convince these knowing ones of the short- 
sightedness of their calculations ; for in order to meet the 
ever increasing demand, addition after addition — all of 
brick — had to be made to the original building, which, 
with characteristic foresight, was constructed with a view 
to such a result, until now there are nearly seven hun- 
dred hands at work in this factory, whose floors cover 
ninety-six thousand square feet of space — considerably 
more than two acres. And still the factory, 'Jumbo' 
though it be, is scarce half big enough, as is evidenced 
by preparations now going on to construct still another 
addition which in itself will be more than the equal, both 
in architecture and spaciousness, of any other factory in 
the State of North Carolina. Its dimensions will be in 
excess of 82,000 square feet — thus making a grand total 
of more than four acres. 

" It has ever been a favorite idea with Mr. Carr to give 
employment to the poorer classes of white people, as well 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 235 

as to the negroes who formerly monopolized the work in 
tobacco factories. But he no sooner attempted to put 
this into practice than the very people whom he was 
striving to benefit confronted him with that miserable 
old skeleton against manual labor, that, alas ! still stalks 
in so many communities here in the South, frightening 
thrift and plenty from so many homes (?) where want and 
penur}^ hold undisputed sway. But this only made him 
the more resolute in his determination to banish the fatal 
spectre. So he at once sent North and brought to his 
factory a number of operatives of the very best class ob- 
tainable. The result was, their example served to bring 
a change over the spirit of the dreams of the denizens of 
Durham, who soon learned to appreciate the dignity of 
labor. And now fully 33 J per cent, of the 700 operatives 
on the pay-rolls of Blackwell's Durham Tobacco Com- 
pany are white." 



SAMUEL WITTKOWSKY, 

OF CHARLOTTE. 

Youngest child of Jacob and Mindel Wittkowsky, 
born May 29th, 1835, in a small place called Schwersenz^. 
one mile from the city of Posen, eastern part of Prussia. 
He received only a free school education. At one time 
his parents were well to do, but lost all through sickness 
and bad investments, and they were very poor when 
Samuel made his advent into the world. He had few 
pleasures in his childhood days, as he had a hard strug- 
gle for existence. 

About 1853, a distant relative of his father's living in 
the country, sent his father about ^50, which enabled 
young Samuel to venture to America. He took steerage 
passage on a sailing vessel and was 64 days out. There 



236 SKETCHES OF 

was great distress on board of ship for food and water. 
On August 6th, 1853, he arrived in New York l:\arbor 
and was forced to lay in quarantine (never knew why), 
but on payment of one dollar a passenger could land. 
All the worldly possessions of Sam at that time amounted 
to three gold dollars and a few clothes. He was there- 
fore rich enough to land, and so engaged a boatman to 
take him ashore. A fellow passenger with not a cent in 
his pocket stood by with tears rolling down his cheeks, 
saying, if he only had a dollar to enable him to leave 
the ship. Samuel loaned the fellow one of his gold dol- 
lars, but up to the present time has never seen the man 
nor the dollar since. So he landed in America with the 
enormous sum of one dollar in gold. He had, however, 
well-to-do relatives in New York, from whom he expected 
assistance. But they turned their backs on him. So he 
was left in a strange land at the age of 18, poor, lonely 
and friendless, with not even a language. He had a good 
cry! But he braced up and found a distant relative of his 
father's who treated him kindly and gave him employ- 
ment in his store at $6 a month and board. He worked 
in that position for three months and sent two-thirds of 
his income, $12, to his needy parents in Prussia: with the 
remainder he went as steerage passenger to Charleston — 
landed again with one dollar. Here he was engaged by 
relatives in a store for $12.50 a month. From his first 
landing until the death of his parents, he gave all he 
could spare from his wages for their support. In 1855, 
he accepted a position with L. Drucker & Co., of Char- 
lotte, arriving in the city the 4th of July. He had saved 
at this time $100 which he put in the Charlotte Bank. 
His solicitude for that bank was great. It was his morn- 
ing and evening thought. His spending money in Char- 
lotte was 5 cents a week, and by close economy he saved 
something and helped his poor parents. Mr. Rintels 
was a fellow-clerk, and he and Wittkowsky formed a 
partnership in the fall of 1856 — firm, Rintels & Co., — 
joint capital $450. They opened store at Ellendale, 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 237 

Alexander county, having a branch establishment in '57 
in Caldwell county, on the Yadkin River, which was 
superintended by Mr. Wittkowsky. The Alexander 
branch was moved to Boone, Watauga county, under Mr. 
Rintels' superintendence. In the spring of *58 he sold 
his interest to Mr. Rintels and took a clerkship with Mr. 
S. Wolfe, in Winsboro, S. C. In the following fall he 
returned to Charlotte, later formed partnership of Koop- 
man, Phelps & Co., at Concord. He became an active 
member in Masonry; was elected Senior Deacon and 
represented his Lodge in Grand Lodge. 

In 1861, he sold out. Went in again with Mr. Rin- 
tels; moved to Statesville. Took an active part in 
Masonry; became Master of the Lodge and was repre- 
sentative several years in the Grand Lodge. 

The civil war coming on, Mr. Rintels went to New York, 
taking with him what money he could gather up, as they 
reasoned that onesideortheother mustlose; thattheSouth, 
even if successful, would perforce of circumstances be bank- 
rupted; they were not willing to risk ''all their eggs in 
one basket." Reasoning good. Result bad ! Mr. Rintels 
lost every dollar of his own and Mr. Wittkowsky's on 
Wall Street. After the war Mr. Wittkowsky had to send 
his partner money to enable him and family to return. 
While at Statesville, Mr. Wittkowsky went into manu- 
facturing hats with one Saltzgiver, a refugee from Mary- 
land. It would be interesting to fully describe that 
enterprise. Hats sold as high as $800 apiece and $5,000 
a dozen. Sold out after the war and moved to Charlotte, 
where the firm of Wittkowsky & Rintels was formed. 
They rented a room in Irwin's corner 21 by 21 with 9 
feet pitch. Bought old rough planks, put up shelving 
themselves and covered with calico. Available assets, 
$3,000 (worth in to-day's currency $800). With that 
they commenced a wholesale and retail trade, worked 
from 16 to 18 hours a day. Made money and in ^68 
enlarged store to 75 feet deep. Business increased to 



238 SKETCHES OF 

$175,000 a year in 1870, when Mrs. Osborne built a store 
for them 54 by 92, three floors. ** 

In 1871, he was married to Miss Carrie Bauman, of 
New York. In 1874 the firm rented the Brem store for 
retailing exclusively, retaining the other for wholesale. 
Business increased to $700,000 in 1876, when Mr. Rin- 
tels died suddenly, June 21st. 

In 1^79, Mr. Wittkowsky formed partnership with Mr. 
Baruch, under name of Wittkowsky & Baruch. Dis- 
solved May 1st, 1887, Mr. Wittkowsky doing the whole- 
sale business himself. 

Mr. Wittkowsky has never been in an}'' financial 
embarrassment; has never been a day behind in meet- 
ing any of his obligations. 

He has identified himself with the progressive element 
of Charlotte and has always been found eager in any 
cause for the public good. 

He has in many ways received tokens from the public 
of the high esteem in which he is held as a square 
business man and good citizen. 

He was Alderman of Charlotte in 1878 and 1879. Has 
been Director in and President of several Buildirjg and 
Loan Associations, and is now and has been for five years 
President of the Mechanics' Perpetual Building and 
Loan Association. 

He was President of the Charlotte Chamber of Com- 
merce, in 1881. 

In Masonry he has held various positions to High 
Priest. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 239 



ALEXANDER BOYD ANDREWS, Esq. 

OF RALEIGH, 

Was born on the 23(1 day of July, 1841, in Franklin 
county, near Franklinton. He is descended from promi- 
nent and honorable families upon both sides. His father, 
William J. Andrews, of Edgecombe, was one of the lead- 
ing merchants of Henderson. His mother, Virginia 
Hawkins, was a daughter of Col. John D. Hawkins, of 
Franklin count}^, and her mother was the daughter of 
Alexander Boyd, a sturdy Scotchman, of Mecklenburg 
county, Virginia. It was after this maternal great-grand- 
father that he was named. Another great grandfather, 
Col. Jonas Johnston, was a revolutionary hero, and was 
wounded in the historic battle of Moore's Creek. His 
elder brother, John, a bright promising lad, died of yel- 
low fever in Norfolk in 1855. His mother dying in 1852 
and his father surviving her but a short w^hile, their 
eight children, four sons and four daughters, were left to 
the care of their grand parents, Colonel and Mrs. Haw- 
kins. Never were orphans more fortunate in their lot. 
The influence of the grand parents is clearly marked in 
the career of the subject of this sketch. 

Until his seventeenth year he attended school, where 
he was proficient in his studies, especially mathematics, 
and was a generous, popular participant in the sports of 
the play ground. He learned in the home of Col. Haw- 
kins the valuable habits of obedience, industry, method 
and promptness, and imbibed, perhaps unconsciously, the 
art of impressing his will upon others and of enforcing 
obedience to it. 

In 1859 General Phil. B. Hawkins, who had a large 
railroad contract in South Carolina, selected his nephew, 
young Andrews, as General Superintendent, Purchasing 
Agent and Paymaster. His early training was soon 
manifest in the fidelity with which the mere boy dis- 



'it 



240 SKETCHES OF 

charged a man's duties, and he took his first lessons in 
the great work of railway construction which was to 
engage his mature powers and by which he was to leave 
his impress on his State's history. 

At the first bugle call for volunteers he forsook the 
hardy, healthful life of the engineer for the dangers and 
the rigors of war. He enlisted as a private in Colonel, 
afterwards Major-General Robert Ransom's splendid regi- 
ment, the first North Carolina Cavalry. He was appointed 
a Lieutenant by that gallant soldier and passed rapidly 
through the grades to the Captaincy of Company "B," 
during his first year of service. Captain Andrews par- 
ticipated in all the memorable campaigns of Stuart's, 
afterwards Hampton's Brigade, and bore himself with 
marked and unflinching courage upon every field. On 
September 22d, 1863, at Jack's Shop, Madison county, 
near Charlottesville, there was a bloody cavalry fight 
between the Confederates, numbering about two thou- 
sand, and the Federal Cavalry, under Kilpatrick, six 
thousand strong. Into the battle Captain xlndrews' regi- 
ment carried only about one hundred and thirty men, so 
great had been its losses in the recent engagements of 
the campaigns. The Adjutant of the regiment, who par- 
ticipated in the fight, wrote to the "Fayetteville Observer^' 
a short while afterwards, as follows : " While cheering on 
his men the gallant Captain Andrews fell, shot through 
the lungs. No braver man or better man has fallen 
during the war. He was universally beloved." This 
tribute reads like an obituary. It was so accepted. But 
his work had not been completed. The wound was 
indeed a desperate one, and might well have been 
regarded as mortal, the ball having passed directly 
through the left lung, injuring the spine on its way out. 
He was removed to Liberty Mills and thence to the hos- 
pital at Gordonsville, where he was attended by Dr. 
Schultz, of New Orleans. In reply to his eager question, 
he was told that there was barelv a chance for his life, 
but his indomitable courage never faltered and he never 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 241 

lost faith in his recovery. Dr. Schultz was ordered else- 
where and did not follow his patient through the weary 
stages of convalescence. Years afterwards Col. Andrews 
met him in New Orleans, and expressed his obligations 
to him for his skill and care in preserving his life, and 
asked the Doctor if he could recall him as one of his 
army patients. Dr. Schultz tried several names and 
finally said : " Well you can't be Andrews, a young North 
Carolina officer, who, I remember, was shot through the 
lungs. I never saw a young fellow try harder to live; 
but I was quite sure he could not." He was greatly 
pleased to find that his visitor was his former patient, 
and was astonished, as was also Dr. Warren Stone, the 
eminent surgeon, at so perfect a recovery from such a 
fearful wound. 

In 1864 Captain Andrews tried twice to return to his 
old command, but his strength was not equal to his sol- 
dierly sense of duty. When, however, he learned that 
General Lee had surrendered, he made his way to Gene- 
ral Joe Johnston's command and surrendered, and was 
paroled with the surviving veterans of that gallant army, 
at Greensboro. 

Captain Andrews returned home to find waste, dis- 
order, and dismay. His nature was hostile to such a 
state of affairs, and he at once became a leader in cheer- 
ing the survivors, and preaching the duty of labor and 
hope. Instinctively he turned to his former pursuits,, 
and observing the interrupted communication in the 
North and South line of railway, by reason of the 
destruction of the bridge at Gaston, he interested Presi- 
dent Lassiter, of the Raleigh & Gaston Railroad, and 
Col. Sanford, of the Petersburg road, in his enterprise,, 
and established and equipped a ferry at Gaston. It was 
a great convenience to the traveling public, and a profit- 
able venture. 

In July, 1867, Dr. W. J. Hawkins, then President of 
the Raleigh & Gaston Railroad, who had tested the 
capacity of his nephew, offered him the Superintendency 
16 



242 SKETCHES OF 

of the road. The duties were comprehensive and embraced 
Dot only a supervision of the transportation; but also of 
construction. During his eight years of service the 
finances of the company, under Dr. Hawkins' wise man- 
agement, were placed upon a substantial basis, and by 
their joint labors many miles of the Raleigh & Augusta 
Air-Line Railroad were built. 

In 1875, Captain Andrews became Superintendent of 
the North Carolina Railroad. The Richuiond & Dan- 
ville Railroad Company had leased this road, and had 
learned by experience in contests with the Raleigh & 
Gaston, the force and address of the young Superinten- 
dent. As the field broadened his capacity filled it. He 
strove to identify the interests of the railroad with the 
interest of the State and to aid in building up the coun- 
try and towns along the lines of the roads controlled by 
the system. To a large number of people the lease of 
the road was a rank offense and the cause of much irri- 
tation. It is not extravagance to say that no man could 
thave allayed this and made friendly feeling to take its 
place with more skill than Colonel Andrews displayed. 
His loyal love for his State he had proved with his blood. 
His antagonists never questioned it and the most hostile 
expressions against the dominance of a foreign corpora- 
tion in the transportation business of the State did not 
•confound the representative of it with the object of dis- 
like. , 

In 1876 Governor Vance appointed Captain Andrews a 
member of his staff with the rank of Colonel, and he 
continued t^ hold that position through Governor Jarvis' 
two administrations. 

In addition to his office of Superintendent of the North 
Carolina Railroad, Colonel Andrews was made assistant 
to the President of the Richmond & Danville system. 
The greater his authority grew the more he could do and 
did for his State. He had sat at the council board while 
the Richmond & Danville Road stretched itself out over 
the Virginia Midland, from Danville to Washington, 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTB CAROLINIANS. 243 

from Richmond to West Point, from Charlotte to Atlanta, 
Augusta, Birmingham and became a great system. He 
knew its resources and he turned them to account in 
North Carolina. It is necessary here only to refer to the 
helpless condition of the Western North Carolina Rail- 
road, Its sale was a matter of course. The sagacity of 
Governor Jarvis and his council had convened the Legis- 
lature. It had concluded a contract with Mr. Best and 
his New York associates by which the State was secured 
against loss and providing for the completion of both 
branches of the road to Paint Rock and to Murphy. 
Under the contract work was to begin by May 29th, 
1880, or the contract was to be forfeited. Mr. Best's 
associates forsook him and the middle of May came with- 
out a dollar in hand with which to begin work. Colonel 
Andrews associated with him Colonel Buford, General 
Logan and Mr. Clyde, of the Danville Directory, and 
advanced fifty thousand dollars and began the construc- 
tion of the road westward. Shortly afterwards he induced 
the Richmond & Danville syndicate to purchase the con- 
tract. This was done and the Western North Carolina 
Railroad was reorganized. Colonel Andrews became its 
President, and is at its head to-day. Over three millions 
in money have been expended in pushing the road 
through to Paint Rock and over the Balsam to Red 
Marble Gap on the edge of Cherokee, our extreme west- 
ern county. It realizes the dream of the great promoters 
of internal improvements, and accomplishes what taxa- 
tion could not have dared. Colonel Andrews was for a 
number of years Superintendent of the Atlantic & North 
Carolina Railroad and controlled a line the length of the 
State. 

He became third Vice-President of the Richmond <fe 
Danville Railroad, in December, 1886. This system now 
embraces 4,700 miles of railway, is capitalized at over 
$50,000,000 and is the sixth largest in the United States. 
He is also President of the University Railroad, of the 
Statesville & W^estern, from Statesville to Taylorsville, 



244 SKETCHES OF 

of the North Western North Carolina, from Greensboro 
to Salem and under construction to Wilkesboro, of the 
Oxford & Henderson and of the Oxford & Clarksville, to 
be completed to Oxford by January i5th, 1888, and to 
Durham by January 1st, 1889. 

He sat as Alderman of the city of Raleigh for a num- 
ber of years and is a Director in several banking, insur- 
ance and manufacturing corporations. 

In September, 1869, Colonel Andrews married Julia, 
the daughter of Colonel William Johnston, of Charlotte, 
and has five children. In 1873 he moved to Raleigh 
where he has since resided. He brought with him his 
devoted old grandmother, to whom he was always ten- 
derly attached, and she made her home with him until 
her death. 

Colonel Andrews has never sought political preferment. 
His bent is distinctively to material construction and to 
doing rather than theorizing. Few men have done more 
before crossing the line of middle life. Even now he 
can look upon great public works completed which he 
had hardly sketched in his fancy a decade ago. 

Of agreeable presence and strong will, he always 
impresses himself upon those with whom he is brought 
in contact.- Every man who ever held place under him 
respects him and bears him good will. Loyal to his con- 
victions he has never yet failed a friend or quailed before 
an opponent. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 245 

Col. WILLIAM JOHNSTON, 

OF CHARLOTTE. 

The subject of this sketch is a native of old Lincoln, 
now Gaston county, the son of Robert Johnston, Sr., 
whose father was Col. Janoes Johnston, distinguished for 
revolutionary services ; his father being Henry Johnston, 
of Scottish descent, who had migrated to North Carolina 
long before the revolutionary war, and settled on the 
banks of the Catawba river, about fifteen miles from Char- 
lotte. They all followed the vocation of farming. Col. 
Wm. Johnston's father married Mary Reid, daughter of 
Capt. John Reid, and had twelve children, of whom no 
one died until after the youngest was over thirty years 
old. There were seven brothers, and the subject of this 
sketch is the sole survivor. Three of the sisters still live, 
Harriet M. Shipp, Mary E. Davidson, and Martha M. 
Rankin. 

Dr. or Capt. John Reid, the grand parent on the moth- 
er's side, was a brave and gallant officer in the revolu- 
tionary war, a Senator from Lincoln county 1710-'ll, 
also in 1717-'18, and former proprietor of the Catawba 
Springs plantation, three miles west of Beattie's Ford, on 
the road to Lincolnton. He left a large family, of whom 
Major Rufus Reid, of Mount Mourne, was his youngest 
son. His wife was Sarah Sharp. They were devout 
worshippers at Unity church, in whose cemetery their 
remains rest. Col. James Johnston and wife were mem- 
bers of the same church. He was the first Senator from 
Lincoln county to the Assembly of the State, and was 
elected three successive years, 1780, '81, and '82. 

Colonel Johnston received a classical education, was 
graduated at Chapel Hill, where his three brothers, Jas. 
A., Dr. Sidney H. and Thos. L. Johnston, also graduated. 
He studied law under Judge, afterwards Chief Justice 
Pearson, and commenced the practice of his profession in 



246 SKETCHES OF 

Charlotte, where he readily became a successful member 
of the bar. In 1846 he was married to Miss Anne Eliza 
Graham, a niece of the late Governor Graham. His wife 
died October, 1881. His financial and practical ability 
soon brought him into prominence. He was elected 
President of the Charlotte and Statesville Plank Road, 
and he built twenty-five miles of it to Mount Mourne, in 
Iredell county, at a remarkably small cost. It has been 
often said that in the construction of that road not a 
superfluous dollar was used. Id 1856 he was elected 
President of the Cnarlotte and South Carolina Railroad, 
and abandoned the practice of law shortly thereafter. In 
this position he found a wider field for his great practical 
business character. The road had never paid a dividend, 
was run down, the stock selling at forty on a hundred. 
He paid a small dividend the first year, put the road in 
good order, and continued to pay liberal dividends to the 
commencement of the war, when the stock freely sold at 
par, and the road paying ten per cent, on the stock an- 
nually. Thus the wealth of the stockholders and the 
country was vastly increased. The road finally becamS 
the chief agent of transportation to the Army of Virginia 
from the South, the Coast Line and other roads being in 
possession of the Federal armies, and continued open 
until February, 1865, when the devastating army of Gen- 
eral Sherman laid it in ruins for sixty miles, including 
the shops, iron track, depots, wood and water stations, 
and over one thousand bales of the company's cotton. 

After Wilmington was occupied by the Federal forces, 
he projected the Columbia and Augusta Railroad as a 
means of increasing the facilities of transportation be- 
tween the armies of Lee and Johnston, respectively at 
Richmond and Dalton, the East Tennessee and Virginia 
lines being also in possession of the Federals. He ap- 
pealed to the Confederate Government for aid in this en- 
terprise, which was promised by the Secretary of War, 
but the waning fortunes of the South rendered aid im- 
possible. However, private investers subscribed about 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 247 

$1,000,000 in Confederate currency. This he invested in 
cotton, and saved about one thousand bales, selling it for 
$170,000, which enabled him to build the Columbia and 
Augusta Railroad, eighty-five miles in length, costing in 
Greenbacks over S2,000,000. When he commenced work 
in January, 1866, lie had not means enough in all to 
build the Savannah and Congaree bridges, which cost 
over $200,000. At the close of the war only $14,000 worth 
of work had been expended in construction of the road. 
With this and the proceeds of cotton, he constructed a 
road through a country made desolate by Vv^ar, a task 
which was very remarkable, considering the limited fa- 
cilities, the scarcity of money, and the want, of confidence 
and credit in the country. Perhaps no other public 
work has. ever been accomplished in the South under 
such adverse circumstances. 

In the construction of this road his private fortune was 
entirely involved, having endorsed for the company for 
over $300,000. His triumph was accompanied with five 
law and equity suits pending against the road, all of 
which were settled at the plaintiffs' cost. 

When the citizens of Augusta wished to build the Sa- 
vannah Valley Railroad, and had not the means necessa- 
ry, General Toombs remarked that the only hope he saw 
was to employ Col. Johnston, who, he had heard, could 
build a railroad without money. 

In 1866 he rebuilt the Charlotte and South Carolina 
Road, sixty miles of which, as before stated, had been de- 
stroyed by Sherman's army. 

At this time he had built and rebuilt more miles of 
railway than any other man South of the Potomac and 
Ohio rivers without State aid. In all these works his 
resources were fri m individuals, except $100,000 of county 
bonds, worth about $95,000. Much praise is due to Col. 
Johnston for the part he acted in repairing the country 
at the close of the war. His efforts not only benefited 
the corporations of which he was the head, but evinced 
unmistakably his public spirit and his zeal for his sec- 



248 SKETCHES OF 

tion. The greater portion of his labors was \u South 
Carolina, extending to the city of Augusta. 

The success of Col. Johnston as a financier naturally 
made him popular with the people, and he has therefore 
been often drawn into the arena of politics. Apprecia- 
ting his ability, Gov. Ellis tendered him the position of 
Commissary General of the State in 1861. This he de- 
clined, as he had just been unanimously elected to the 
Secession Convention by his county. But on reaching 
the Convention at Raleigh, he was prevailed on by Gov. 
Ellis to accept. He resigned his seat in the Convention, 
and immediately entered upon the duties of his office. 
By the Constitution as it then existed, the Jews were de- 
barred from holding any office in the State. He intro- 
duced the ordinance, which passed the Convention, enti- 
tling them to all the rights of citizens. His railroad con- 
nections enabled him to economize and facilitate the 
transportation of supplies. Apprehending that meat 
would soon become scarce, he bought a large supply of 
bacon at about eleven cents. Later he found that he had 
over 200,000 pounds more than the department might 
require, on account of the fact that the Confederate au- 
thorities declined to take any more twelve month com- 
panies, which diminished the troops in camp. This he 
sold to the Confederate Government at 22 cents per lb., 
QDaking for the State over twenty thousand dollars clear, 
a sum more than sufficient to pay all the expenses of his 
department during the time he acted as Commissary 
General. Thus his administration cost the State nothing. 
He resigned in the fall, and resumed his management of 
railroads. He was an old line Whig, and a strong Union 
man before the war, but after eight States had seceded, 
he favored North Carolina's withdrawal from the Union 
entirely, as a meatis of securing peace. He believed that 
the General Government might attempt to drive the few 
seceded States back into the Union, but that if all the 
slave States united they would become too strong for the 
Nortli to attempt their subjugation, thus avoiding blood- 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 249 

shed. He was not an original secessionist, but he simply 
favored secession as a peace measure. 

In 1862 the financial state of the country was unsettled, 
and there was a general sentiment in favor of electing a 
practical business man for Governor. Co). Johnston was 
made a candidate on account chiefly of his ^reat success 
as a financier. He was opposed by Hon. Z. B. Vance, 
our present Senator, who was elected. Col. Johnston did 
not make any canvass. 

In 1864 President Davis offered him the position of 
Commissary General of the Confederate States, which he 
declined, thinking that his services in the transportation 
department would he better for the country. 

In 1880 he was strongly supported for Congress in his 
district, and entered the Convention with the largest 
number of votes, but after a number of ballots, in which 
he came within a few votes of the nomination, his name 
was withdrawn. 

He has been for a number of years elected Mayor of 
Charlotte, where his good management and financial 
ability served to add much to the prosperity of the city. 
The Electric Lights, Street Railway and Sewage were all 
introduced during his term of office, and in one year. The 
extensive macadamizing of the' streets was also a feature 
of his administration. 

He is a man of large fortune, and has done much for 
Charlotte in his private capacity; he is owner and part 
owner in a number of the finest business houses in the 
city. 

The energy of Col. Johnston, his enterprise, his cau- 
tious but progressive spirit, and his great ability to util- 
ize the resources at his command with foresight, are 
worthy of the highest praise, and also of imitation. 

His business enterprises have shown him to be a man 
of broad, liberal and far-seeing faculties. He is practical 
and economic in executing his plans; stern but generous 
in his requirements of others, and quick and decided in 
action. His policy has been public spirited, and has 



250 SKETCHES OF 

greatly promoted the general weal in his section. Added 
to his financial ability he has displayed that rare quality 
of inspiring confidence in his ability to succeed. 

His interest in afi'airs has not been altogether confined 
to financiering. He is a man of general culture. He is 
familiar with the political history of our country, and 
has a fine appreciation of the English literature. He has 
given much study to historical and scientific subjects. In 
his public life he has often made speeches in which he 
displayed a wide range of knowledge, interesting and 
forcible reasoning, and a ready wit; all with a grace and 
fluency seldom found in orators of our time. 

He is a man of handsome physique, erect, and grace- 
ful in carriage. He has an intellectual iforehead and a dis- 
cerning eye. His dress is becoming and tasty, and in his 
bearing he shows every mark of a cultivated and refined 
gentleman. His manners and address are such as to at- 
tract attention wherever he appears. 



W. T. BLACKWELL, Esq., 

OF DURHAM. 

With slight alteration the sketch of this gentleman's 
life is taken from the "History of Durham:" 

Was born January 12th, 1839, near Woodsdale, Person 
county, N. C, and is the son of Mr. James L. Blackwell, 
now a resident of this city. In his youth he received a 
common school education. In the years 1862 and 1863 
he taught school in his native village. He began life as 
a broker and trader in every description of merchandise. 
He early began to devote especial attention to specula- 
ting in plug tobacco, and, purchasing a wagon and team, 
travelled through the country, in conjunction with James 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 251 

R. Day, peddling tobacco until the close of the war. He 
then, in copartnership with Mr. Day, opened a jobbing 
tobacco house in Kinston, continuing his itinerant traffic. 
The principal part of their traffic was in the tobacco 
manufactured by J. R. Green, at Durham, then an 
obscure water station, whose brand had gained consider- 
able local reputation. It soon became apparent that there 
was a greater demand for this tobacco than Mr. Green 
could supply, and arrangements were consummated in 
1868, whereby the capacity of the factory was enlarged 
and Messrs. Black well & Day became partners with Mr. 
Green. The business thus received a new impetus and 
began to thrive; but Mr. Green, who for some time had 
been in failing health, died in 1869, and his interest was 
purchased from his heirs by the remaining partners. In 
1870 Mr. Julian S. Carr joined the firm, and since that 
time Mr. Blackwell has been senior partner of the cele- 
brated firm of W. T. Blackwell & Co. He remained, 
however, sole proprietor of the trade-mark, until his 
interest was bought by M. E. McDowell & Co., of Phila- 
delphia. Mr. Blackwell, as a judge of tobacco, has few 
equals. While a member of the firm, he gave exclusive 
attention to selecting and purchasing the tobacco manu- 
factured by the firm, every pound of which passed under 
his inspection, and his intelligence and experience as a 
buyer was an important factor in the extensive popu- 
larity of the Durham Bull Smoking Tobacco. 

He was married December 27th, 1877, to Miss Emma 
Exum, daughter of W. J. Exum, an extensive planter of 
Hillsboro, and formerly of Wayne county, N. C. 

To W. T. Blackwell mainly belongs the honor of found- 
ing the town of Durham through the establishment and 
successful conduct of his Tobacco manufacture, and to 
him equally belongs the credit and renown of having 
fostered and sustained a community which has grown 
from a straggling village of 273 persons to a busy town 
of 5,000 or more inhabitants. Through him Durham 
has thus been given a forward move in the tobacco 



252 SKETCHES OF 

industry, and the example has been productive of the 
inauguration of other and prominent establishments. 
Nowhere on the American continent is better tobacco 
produced than in the vicinity of Durham, and nowhere 
can its manufacture be more successfully conducted, as 
has been proven by W. T. Black well & Co., whose reward 
is written on every building in the town, and whose 
names will be held in grateful remembrance. 



Col. THOMAS M. HOLT, 

OF ALAMANCE COUNTY. 

"Col. Thomas M. Holt, of Haw River, is the second 
son of Edwin M. and Emily Holt, of Alamance county, 
N. C. He was born 15th July, 1831 ; was prepared for 
college at Caldwell Institute, Hillsboro, and matriculated 
at the University of North Carolina in 1849 ; but so 
strongly was he imbued with the spirit of his father, and 
being more fond of his factory than college fame, he left 
Chapel Hill in 1851, when half advanced in the junior 
class, and at once addressed his time and talents to the 
manufacture of cotton yarns and fabrics in his father's 
employ until 1860, when in a brick building 36x64, with 
only 528 spindles (now a wing to that immense factory 
known throughout the Southern and Eastern States as 
the Granite Mills), he commenced business on his own 
account. 

"These mills are owned and managed by Col. Holt, 
and have recently been reconstructed and furnished with 
new machinery. They are situated on Haw River, near 
Haw River Station, on the north side of the North Caro- 
lina Railroad, in Alamance county. They are the larg- 
est and best equipped mills in North Carolina, and rank 
with any in the Southern States. They contain 8,424 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 253 

spindles and 434 looms, and give constant employment 
to 425 men, women and children, wlio occupy 100 or 
more well constructed and neatly painted brick and 
frame dwellings, situated on the premises; besides these 
dwellings there is a five-story flour mill; a large store 
house, filled with general merchandise, from which the 
operatives and neighbors get their supplies, a beautiful 
and conveniently arranged office; sundry store and ware- 
houses, and last but not least, an attractive and comfort- 
able Chapel, in which Col. Holt and family and the opera- 
tives worship, and whose pulpit is filled at Col. Holt's 
expense. 

"Standing on the railroad bridge which spans Haw 
River, and looking on the north side, are seen the cotton 
factory, flour mills, dwellings and other buildings men- 
tioned above, and it has the appearance of a large, thrifty 
and beautiful village; larger indeed than some of our 
so-called towns, all owned by Col. Holt, which cost him 
exceeding $400,000. 

" On the opposite side of the bridge, on an eminence, 
his princely mansion is located. It is perhaps the largest, 
most elegantly finished and furnished country dwelling 
in North Carolina. The grounds cover twelve acres, are 
most highly improved and embellished, presenting the 
appearance of Central Park, New York, in miniature. A 
more desirable house cannot be found. These grounds 
and the improvements cost $25,000. He is the owner of 
that famous plantation known as "Linwood," at Linwood 
station, on the North Carolina Railroad, a few miles from 
Lexington. It is here' he raises such vast quantities of 
wheat, clover, hay and choice cattle and sheep. The 
property herein described, with other not mentioned, 
together with the stock and lands he holds, makes his 
estate worth at least a half-million of dollars — the pro- 
ceeds of his own industry." 

The above is taken from an article in the '^New South." 
Col. Holt was elected by the people of Alamance as a 
County Commissioner two terms and served as chairman. 



254 SKETCHES OF 

In the fall of 1876 he was elected to the State Senate from 
Alamance and Guilford. He was elected to the House of 
Representatives in 1882 and in 1884-86. He was elected 
Speaker of the House in January, 1885. For twelve 
years he w^as President of the North Carolina Railroad 
Company. He has long been a member of the Board of 
Agriculture. For eight years he was President of the 
North Carolina State Agricultural Society. Before the 
war he was a magistrate and a member of the Special 
Court under our old County Court system. 

Col. Holt has been found a ready and liberal supporter 
of any measure tending to the progress of the State. 

He is now the nominee of the Democratic party for 
Lieutenant Governor of the State. 



H. W. FRIES, Esq., 

OF SALEM. 

The subject of this sketch is the senior partner of one 
of the oldest and most successful cotton and woolen 
enterprises in the State. He was born March 5th, 1825; 
educated at the Moravian boys' school at Nazareth, Penn- 
sylvania. 

The woolen establishment was commenced July 24th, 
1840, by F. Fries, Sr., a man of fine business talent, who 
was born near Salem, in 1812; educated at Nazareth, 
Pennsylvania, and died August 1st, 1863. In March, 
1846, the firm of F. & H. Fries was formed by the 
entrance into the business of H. W. Fries, the subject of 
this sketch. The establishment has steadily grown in 
success and reputation from its foundation. The goods 
manufactured are of the very best quality and have long 
enjoyed a wide reputation. Since the establishment of 
the wool mill in 1840, the firm increased their enterprise 
by erecting the adjoining cotton mill in 1846, and also 
in 1880, by establishing the Arieta Cotton Mill. The 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 255 

Wachovia Flouring Mill was built in 1878. The mem- 
bers of the firm have shown great enterprise and ability 
in achieving their success and reputation. 

The subject of this sketch was the sole manager of the 
business after the death of F. Fries, Sr., until 1879, when 
the interest of F. Fries, Sr., was assumed by J. W. Fries, 
F. H. Fries and H. E. Fries. Mr. J. W. Fries is now the 
chief manager of the business. He attends to the office 
work and the finances, and is a man of intelligence and 
first-class financial ability. Mr. F. H. Fries is the prac- 
tical manager of the Arieta Cotton & Salem Woolen 
Mill. Mr. H. E. Fries has charge of the Wachovia 
Flouring Mill. The}^ are all men of energy and fine 
business capacity. 



Maj. R. S. tucker, 

OF RALEIGH. 

Rufus Sylvester Tucker was born in Raleigh, April 
5th, 1829. He was the third sod of RufiSn Tucker and 
Lucinda M. (his wife) Sledge, and brother of Col. W. H. 
H. Tucker and Dr. Jos. J. W. Tucker, of Raleigh, now de- 
ceased. He was prepared for college at the Raleigh 
Academy, under J. M. Lovejoy, in his day one of the most 
noted teachers in the State. 

In 1844 he entered the University of North Carolina, 
from which he graduated in 1848, having among his fel- 
low-collegians M. W. Ransom, United States Senator, and 
Gen. Johnston Pettigrew, and among his classmates were 
Victor C. Barringer, Seaton Gales, Jno. Wilson, and 
others. On leaving the University, he entered the mer- 
cantile establishment of his father and brother (R. Tucker 
& Son), serving as a clerk until 1851, when his father 



SKETCHES OF 256 

died, and he then became a partner with his brother, un- 
der the name of W. H. & R. S. Tucker. 

At the beginning of the civil war in 1861, he was ap- 
pointed by Gov. Ellis Quartermaster and Commissary at 
Raleigh, N. C, with no supplies or preparation, and by 
untiring industry succeeded in aiding and getting into 
the field ten companies of State troops. In the fall of that 
year he resigned the appointment and raised an inde- 
pendent company of cavalry, of which he was elected 
Captain. His company afterwards joined the 3d Regi- 
ment of North Carolina Cavalry, composed of ten inde- 
pendent companies, and was placed in active service in 
the eastern part of this State. He remained with his 
regiment, principally in the neighborhood of New Berne 
ai*id Washington, until the fall of 1862, when he was pro- 
moted to a majorate and assigned to the staff of the Ad- 
jutant-General of the State. 

In the winter of 1862-'63 he was elected Chief Clerk of 
the House of Commons of North Carolina, the duties of 
which oflSce he performed until the close of 1863. 

Since arriving at man's estate, he has- always taken a 
leading and active part in the affairs of his native city, 
to whose interests he is zealously devoted, and to the ad- 
vancement of which he has brought the skill and energy 
of the business man, united with liberality and enlight- 
ened ideas. He was a Director of the North Carolina 
Railroad Company for years, including the war, and is 
now a Director in the Raleigh and Gaston, Raleigh and 
Augusta, and Carolina Central Railroads. He is, and 
has been for over twenty-five years, a Trustee of the North 
Carolina Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and the 
Blind, and for the last eight or ten years has been the 
President of the Board, and manifests great care and de- 
votion in its proper conduct and success. He is a mem- 
ber of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and a vestryman 
of Christ Church, Raleigh. 

His brother, W. H. H. Tucker, died in 1882, and on 
the first day of February, 1883, he retired from the mer- 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 257 

cantile business, in favor of the young men who had 
been in their employ, and who now conduct this famous 
dry goods establishment under the name of W. H. & R. 
S. Tucker & Co. Since then Major Tucker has been at- 
tending to the winding up of his mercantile affairs, and 
has also bought and highly improved a farm of some 540 
acres near Raleigh (known as Camp Mangum), and has 
succeeded well in improving and bringing up the farm. 
He is also engaged in raising the very finest strain of Jersey 
Cattle, as he will raise none but the purest and highest 
butter strains. 

A considerable portion of the proceeds of his mercan- 
tile business has been invested in very desirable real es- 
tate in Raleigh, being probably the largest holder of real 
estate in the city. 

In private life he is courteous, hospitable and liberal, 
with fine social qualities united with great energy and 
industry ; and withal a keen love for the sports of the 
field, having the reputation of being one of the best shots 
on the wing in the State. lie married in 1856 Miss 
Florence E. Perkins, daughter of Churchill Perkins, of 
Pitt county, N. C, a man of prominence in the eastern 
portion of the State, at one time the largest manufacturer 
of turpentine in the United States. He also represented 
Pitt county in the Legislature for a number of terms. 

Copied, with some alterations and additions, from the 
" Representative Men of the South." 



17 



258 SKETCHES OF 



MOSES L. HOLMES, Esq., 

OF SALISBURY, 

Born the 6th day of April, 1817, on Big .River, near 
Flat Swamp, in Davidson councy. His father was Jesse 
Holmes, who w^as a well to do farmer, owning a fine tract 
of land, a grist mill and a large number of negroes. 

Moses was raised on his father's farm, where he had 
the industrial training incident to country life. His edu- 
cation was very limited. He attended the subscription 
schools of his time a few months in winter. But he gradu- 
ated in a higher school — the school of practical business. 
There are some men who, with the best college educa- 
tions, are without common sense, and who seem to learn 
nothing of men or of business. There are others who, with- 
out any college education, seem to have a quick compre- 
hension of men, and who, by a habit of observing closely 
and storing up what they learn, acquire a large amount 
of useful knowledge. One of the latter kind is Mr. 
Holmes. 

He left the farm at an earh^ age and took a clerkship 
with James Ellis, a merchant of Davidson county. He 
retained this position for a year or so, when he removed 
'to Gold Hill, Rowan county. Here, on a borrowed capi- 
tal of $500, he entered, into partnership with Honeycutt 
Bros, in the business of general merchandising. His 
brother Reuben was also connected with the business for 
awhile. Mr. Holmes continued in this business for sev- 
eral years. Then he and his brother began merchandis- 
ing under the firm of M. L. & R. J. Holmes, and con- 
ducted their business successfully until 1853, when they 
became interested in mining and retired from mercantile 
life. 

They had for some time prior to their retirement from 
merchandising operated successfully the Earnhart mine, 
and also the McCulloch mine, in Guilford county, which 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 259 

they had under lease. The Old Field mine, the Heilick 
mine, and the Barnhart mine, all in Davidson county, 
were taken under bond by Mr. Holmes; that is to say, 
bonds were given and an agreement made that if Mr. 
Holmes sold the property for a certain sum in a given 
time, it wouJd be deeded to him ; if not, the bonds were 
void. Mr. Holmes was very fortunate with these mines, 
and in August, 1853, he sold them for $315,000, a sum 
much larger than the bonds required. At the same time, 
he sold the McCuUoch mine in Guilford county for 
$110,000. 

The Gold Hill Mining Company was then formed to 
operate the Gold Hill, Heilick and Barnhart mines, in 
which both Mr. Holmes and his brother Reuben were 
largely interested. 

The property of this company was sold under an at- 
tachment to B. B. Roberts the 6th of January, 1862. 

Mr. Holmes and his brother then formed a partnership 
with B. B. Roberts, but the war being in progress little 
was done. 

Mr. Holmes, in the meantime, made copperas and blue- 
stone, a large quantity of which he furnished the Gov- 
ernment. 

After the war the mining property was sold to Amos 
Hows, the President of the original company, for $25,000, 
but Mr. Hows failing to meet the payments, the property 
was sold under mortgage and repurchased by Mr. Holmes 
and his brother, who lastly sold the same to a London 
company for $125,000. 

During the war Mr. Holmes purchased about 700 bales 
of cotton from 15 cents to $1.50 per pound in Confederate 
money, which he shipped to New York after the war and 
sold at about 63 cents per pound in Greenbacks, making 
a large sum of money. 

He also made money during the war in operating a 
woolen mill in Montgomery county, but this mill was de- 
stroyed by fire in 1863. 

Mr. Holmes moved to Salisbury in 1865, where he has 



260 SKETCHES OF 

been successfully engaged in general merchandising, in 
the boot and shoe business, in tanning and in tobacco 
manufacturing. He is now largely interested in a cotton 
factory to be operated in Salisbury as soon as it can be 
built. 

He has been a member of the Legislature, a Director 
of the North Carolina Railroad, and County Commis- 
sioner, and has held other positions of honor. 

He is a man of fine practical sense, level-headed, cau- 
tious, and knows how to calculate results. Yet he cares 
nothing for display. With all his wealth, he is a plain, 
unaffected citizen. He is a man of thorough honesty, 
and is a sincere christian. He is liberal with his money, 
yet he likes best to help those who try to help them- 
selves. 



SAMUEL McDowell TATE, Esq., 

OF MORGANTON, 

Was born in Morganton, N. C, September 6th, 1830. 
Educated at private schools in North Carolina and Penn- 
sylvania. Appointed Captain of Company D, 6th Regi- 
ment, Regular Troops, May 20th, 1861. Promoted Major 
at "Seven Pines," May, 1862. Promoted Lieutenant- 
Colonel at Gettysburg, July 2d, 1863; commanded 6th 
Regiment to the close of the war. Wounded at Sharps- 
burg, September, 1862, at Rappahannock Bridge, Novem- 
ber, 1863, at "Cedar Creek," October, 1864, and at Peters- 
burg, March 25th, 1865. 

Elected President of the Western North Carolina Rail- 
road June, 1865, and remained a Director of the road for 
private stockholders till its sale. Was removed from its 
Presidency by Provisional Governor Holden in August, 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 261 

1865. Again elected President by the Worth Board in 
August, 1866, and again removed by Holden's "Recon- 
struction" Board in 1868. After the sale of the road in 1875, 
he was elected private stock holders' commissioner to organ- 
ize the system and work the convict force on the road, as 
authorized by act of March, 1875, of which, as a member 
of that Legislature, he was the author. Was a member 
of the House from Burke two terms previous to the pres- 
ent, and chairman of Committee on Finance each term. 
After becoming member of the Legislature, resigned all 
connection with railroads, and sold his stock. Was a 
Justice of the Peace for twenty-five years. Delegate to 
every Democratic National Convention from 1860 to this 
time, save and except the "Greeley" Convention. Serves 
on committees : Internal Improvements, Railroad Com- 
mission, Rules, and is chairman of Committee on Finance. 
Col. Tate is an old-fashioned Jeffersonian Democrat, 
and a truer son to the Old North State never entered the 
State Capitol. He is a very quiet man, and very seldom 
joins in the many discussions that arise, but when he 
does speak, he receives the attention of his fellow-mem- 
bers, for all regard his opinions on any subject as being 
sound, logical, practical and worthy to be carefully con- 
sidered. He is a very close and earnest worker, and his 
services on committees and elsewhere are fully apprecia- 
ted by all who know him. — Legislative Biographical Sketch 
Book, 1883. 



262 SKETCHES OF 

J. G. HALL, Esq., 

OF HICKORY. 

The father of this gentleman was Alexander A. Hall, 
who was born and raised about six miles from Salisbury, 
Rowan county. 

J. G. Hall was born at the old homestead of his mater- 
nal grandfather, in Iredell county, the 10th of February, 
1845. In his infancy his parents moved to Georgia, 
where they remained for several years. His father taught 
school in that State and General Gordon, the present 
Governor of Georgia, was one of his pupils. 

When Mr. Hall was about five years old his parents 
returned to North Carolina, and lived for awhile with his 
paternal grand parents near Salisbury. Soon, however, 
they settled at Wilkesboro, where the subject of this 
sketch received his first impressions of the realities of 
life. His first absence from the parental roof unattended 
was to a remote part of the town on an errand for his 
mother. In wandering about in the labyrinth of streets 
in that old town he lost his way, and has ever since that 
time been somewhat a wanderer. 

His father taught school in Wilkesboro until 1857, 
and from him Mr. Hall received what education he has 
had. 

In 1856, his father embarked in merchandising and 
Mr. Hal], then eleven years old, entered the store and 
made his acquaintance with business. At the death of 
bis father in 1859, he was left entirely in charge of the 
store. The goods were sold out. Mr. Hall then clerked 
awhile for Stephen Johnson, an old-time merchant of 
Wilkesboro. When the war broke out he engaged for 
awhile as clerk for General James B. Gordon, of the same 
town. In the winter of 1861, at the age of fifteen, he 
entered the army and was made Orderly Sergeant of the 
third company that left Wilkes county. In February, 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 263 

1862, he was elected Second Lieutenant of the same com- 
pany. Mr. Hall was very sickly in his youth and when 
he entered the army he was not a very dangerous look- 
ing soldier. At Franklin, Virginia, being "under fire" 
for the first time, he was severely frightened. At Neuse 
Kiver bridge, near Goldsboro, he was very badly excited. 
At the battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, he felt uncom- 
fortably far from home. However, being busy at the- 
time he did not say a word about it. Later in the fight 
he stepped on a bullet and sprained his ankle. At 
Bristow Station he felt better when he knew the Union 
soldiers were going one way and the Confederates another. 
He was "around Richmond" and in the trenches at 
Petersburg. 

The hardship to vv^hich he was subjected served to 
strengthen him and he became one of the best of sol- 
diers. His power of endurance was equal to that of any 
other man in his company. He was in the principal 
battles of the war and was twice wounded. His career 
as a soldier was in every respect praiseworthy. After the 
surrender he returned to Wilkesboro, where his mother 
and sister were living alone, his brother being at that 
time in prison. He had borne up well during the war 
but he was wasted at that time with disease, weighing 
only 99 pounds. 

In this condition and without a dollar in his pocket or 
one in expectation, he was left to fight his way through 
the world. 

When his brother was released from prison they 
secured on credit an old army horse, rented some land 
and proceeded to raise a crop. 

In 1866, Mr. Hall clerked for awhile in AVilkesboro. 
Then with R. L. Patterson & Co., of Patterson, Caldwell 
county, until October, 1867. After this he lived in Salem 
for four years, as salesman, bookkeeper, cashier, etc. He 
was Assistant Treasurer of the Charlotte, Columbia &. 
Augusta Railroad at Columbia, for four months. 



264 SKETCHES OF 

In November, 1871, he returned to Wilkesboro and 
joined his brother in the mercantile business. 

In 1872 they became partners of R. L. Patterson, of 
Hickory. Mr. Hall managed the business, the firm being 
Hall & Patterson. In 1875 the business at Wilkesboro 
was discontinued. The firm of Hall & Patterson was 
succeeded by the firm of Hall Bros. This firm has had 
more or less to do with all the business activities of 
Hickory. For several years he personally conducted the 
mercantile business, but the manufacture of tobacco soon 
attracted his attention. His tobacco business was first 
conducted under the firm of Hall & Daniel, then as 
Hall & Bohannan, and has since 1879 required most of 
his time and attention, until his establishment of the 
Piedmont Wagon Company. This enterprise is second 
to none of its kind in the South. 

Mr. Hall has taken an active part in politics, not for 
himself, but for his friends and his party. He has been 
repeatedly elected Mayor and Alderman of Hickory. He 
has been one of the Directors of the Chester & Lenoir 
Railroad and is now a Director of the Morganton Insane 
Asylum. 

Mr. Hall has a wonderful capacity for work, and per- 
haps works as hard as any man in the State. He has 
been identified with every public movement in the pro- 
gress of his town. Indeed, he is often introduced to 
strangers as the "Owner and Proprietor of Hickory." He 
has done a great deal of disinterested charity. 

At the Southern Wagon Manufacturers Association 
recently held at Nashville, he was elected Secretary and 
Treasurer. 

The popularity of the Piedmont Wagons is rapidly 
spreading throughout the Southern States, and every- 
where we see that familiar sign : 

"Buy a Piedmont Wagon." 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 265 

A. B. DAVIDSON, Esq., 

OF CHARLOTTE. 

One of the best of men — large hearted ; a true chris- 
tian; a lover of his country; one of those plain, unedu- 
cated men who make little noise in the world but do a 
great amount of good. He has done much to make 
Charlotte a city. He is ever building new and attractive 
bouses; altering and repairing aud painting old ones 
and otherwise making himself a useful citizen. 

His paternal grandfather, a Highland Scotchman by 
birth, came to this country with his widowed mother 
sometime after the Scotch rebellion and settled in the 
Cumberland Valley in the colony of Penn., and then 
removed to North Carolina, county of Mecklenburg, 
about 150 or 160 years ago. He settled about 14 miles 
northwest of Charlotte on a plantation situated on the 
Catawba River, which was then called "Beaver Dam," 
and which estate has been in the possession of the family 
for 180 years, and now consists of 2,000 acres and is 
known as "Rural Hill." 

Maj. John Davidson was one of the signers of the 
immortal Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, 
May 20th, 1775. He married Violet Wilson, by whom 
he had three sons and seven daughters, all of whom they 
lived to see married. Maj. John Davidson died in 1832, 
in his 97th year, and his wife, Violet, died in 1818. 

The maternal grandfather was Hon. Adam Brevard, 
an eminent lawyer and sterling patriot, who married 
Mary Winslow, by whom he had three sons and seven 
daughters, all of whom he lived to see married, then 
died in his 75th year, while his wife died at the age of 
70 years. 

His father, John Davidson (Jr.) called "Jackey," 
married Sarah Harper Brevard, daughter of Adam and 



266 SKETCHES OF 

Mary Brevard, on November 11th, 1800, and succeeded 
to the estate of his father, Maj. Davidson. 

John Davidson was a man of industry, integrity and 
intelligence, while his wife, Sallie Harper Davidson, was 
noted for her eminent piety and benevolence. She died 
at the age of 84, January 18th, 1864, and her husband 
did not long survive her, dying April 26th, 1870, in his 
92d year. 

John Davidson was succeeded in his estate of ''Rural 
Hill" by his second son, Adam Brevard Davidson, who 
was born in 1808, and was therefore 80 years old on 
March 13th, 1888. He married Mary Laura Springs, 
daughter of Hon. John Springs, of York District, S. C., 
on April 20th, 1836, by whom he had 15 children, 14 of 
whom they had the pleasure of educating. 

Mary Laura Davidson, wife of A. B. Davidson, was 
born November 3d, 1813, and died October, 1872, in the 
59th year of her age, surrounded by her husband and 11 
surviving children. 

In 1876, A. B. Davidson married Cornelia C. Elmore, 
daughter of Hon. Franklin Elmore, of South Carolina. 

It is worthy of note that A. B. Davidson was born 
and married and raised his large family on the same 
plantation on which his grandfather, Maj. John David- 
son and his father, John Davidson (Jr.) had each lived 
and reared their respective families. The old homestead, 
a noble old brick mansion, was consumed by fire only 
one year ago on last October, being just two years short 
of 100 years old, when it was intended by the family 
to have celebrated its centennial. This place is now 
occupied by J. Springs Davidson, oldest son of A. B. 
Davidson. 

A. B. Davidson having, as above stated, been born and 
raised on this "Rural Hill" plantation, continued to live 
there till 1872, when he moved with his family to Char- 
lotte. Although having a limited education, he was a 
remarkably successful planter, which profession he chose 
at the age of 10 years and in which he employed his 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 267 

energy and industry until his removal to Charlotte, since 
which time he has devoted himself to the management 
of his real estate, having built 16 stores and dwelling 
houses during this time. 

His residence is situated on the lot known as the 
Queen's College grounds and under whose sod lies the 
dust of Dr. Ephriam Brevard and wife, with other noted 
persons. 

Mr. Davidson held the position of Elder in the Pres- 
byterian Church at Hopewell, for about 40 years, until 
the time of his removal to Charlotte. He was a delegate 
to the Old School General Assembly, which convened 
in New York City in 1856. 

He was President of the Mecklenburg Agricultural 
Society about 15 years, which position he held until the 
Society was broken up by the late war. He served as a 
Trustee of Davidson College for 25 or 30 years, in which 
college he took a special pride, it having been founded 
by his ancestors, and he having contributed largely to its 
progress and improvement. On the day of his engage- 
ment to his first wife, December, 1835, he made a con- 
tract with Henry C. Owens, contractor for the college 
buildings; Mr. Davidson was to furnish 150,000 feet of 
lumber for the college, all of which he delivered on the 
college ground by September, 1836, having sawed it at 
his own mill and hauled every load of it by his own 
teams, not delaying the contractor for a single day. He 
was elected one of the twelve of the first Board of Direc- 
tors of the C. C. & A. R. Road, in September, 1847, and 
has served on that Board up to the present time. 

He was elected as one of the Directors of the Granites- 
ville Manufacturing Company in South Carolina, near 
Augusta, Georgia, and still serves in that capacity. 

He also served as Director in the M. & F. National 
Bank at Charlotte, for six or eight years. 

He was not in the military service, being over age, 
nearly 60 years, at the time of the breaking out of the 
war. His sons, however, John, Robert and Richard, all 



268 SKETCHES OF 

served their country up to the time of its surrender, and 
his sou Robert served from the beginning to the end of 
the war. He returned home in a dying condition, the 
result of cruel treatment while a prisoner of war, and 
lived but a few days after reaching home. His son 
Richard was but 17 years old when he entered the ser- 
vice. 

It is well known that he was opposed to the war until 
after his own State, North Carolina, had seceded, when 
there was no alternative but to come to her defense, and 
of course he was a strong Confederate, and contributed as 
much or more money than any other man in Mecklen- 
burg county. He took over $100,000 of Confederate 
bonds, the first $30,000 being paid in gold, every dollar 
of which was lost. 



JOHN LEWIS BROWN, Esq., 

OF CHARLOTTE. 

Son of P. M. Brown, was born January 8th, 1829, near 
Salisbury, Rowan county. He did not receive a collegi- 
ate education, but he has, like many of our most useful 
citizens, received his knowledge from the business of the 
world. He started out at 18 years of age as a clerk and 
has steadily risen to a position of high respect. He has 
been for a long time one of the prominent merchants of 
Charlotte. He was married to Nancy J. Kerr, daughter 
of J. B. Kerr, in the city of Charlotte, August 23d, 1853; 
represented Mecklenburg in the Legislatures of 1862, 
1864 and 1878;^ has been member of the Board of Alder- 
men at different times since he was 22 years old; has 
been for twenty years member of the Board of Trustees 
of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church of 
the United States; has been a Trustee of Davidson Col- 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 269 

lege for the last seven years and is now Trustee of the 
Synod of North Carolina, and a Director in the First 
National Bank of Charlotte. He was director of the 
"Bank of North Carolina." He is serving his seventh 
year as President of the Mutual Building and Loan 
Association. He had the honor of being elected Presi- 
dent of the Board of Trustees of Davidson College, last 
June. He was very recently elected President of the 
Ada Manufacturing Company, of Charlotte. He is a 
man of excellent disposition, jovial in conversation and 
kind hearted in all his dealings. 



Capt. ADDISON GOEGAS BRENIZER 

OP CHARLOTTE. 

Those aspiring for success in the bookkeeping profes- 
sion will find a worthy example in the subject of this 
sketch. He was born in Pennsylvania, January 19th, 
1839, but his parents moving to the west when he was 
about 10 years old, his early life was spent amid the 
bustle and intense energy of western life in the then 
growing city of St. Louis, Missouri, where he was, as he 
has always been since, identified with the Southern 
people. 

Entering in early life the wholesale drug business and 
passing the several grades, he soon reached the highest 
position in the house, that of Confidential Clerk and 
Bookkeeper. When this house failed in the great panic 
of 1857, his services were soon in demand, and he was 
engaged as bookkeeper and cashier of the large manu- 
facturing establishment of Thornton, Grimsley & Co., so 
extensively known throughout the West before the war. 

In the latter part of 1860, he decided to locate in New 
Orleans, where he was engaged with the Mercantile 



270 SKETCHES OF 

Agency of R. G. Dun & Co. ; the war breaking out soon 
after, he was among the first to volunteer with the four 
months' troops, joining the 1st Regiment Louisiana 
Volunteers. It was not long before his talent for accounts 
became known and he was called first into the Quarter- 
master's Department and thence into the Ordnance 
Department at Baton Rouge, Louisiana. There being a 
demand for efficient clerks at Headquarters, he was 
ordered by the Chief of Ordnance, General Josiah Gorgas, 
to report at Richmond, where in a few months he was 
made Chief Clerk of the Ordnance Bureau. In May, 

1862, he was appointed Captain of Artillery and assigned 
to duty as Ordnance officer at Greensboro, N. C, where 
a new depot for Ordnance stores was established. 

In March, 1863, the Confederate Government having 
decided to establish Ordnance works at Salisbury, N. C, 
he was placed in command, and the establishment grow- 
ing in importance, it was designated an Arsenal of Con- 
struction. The close of the war found him in charge, 
with 240 men under his command. He also had charge 
of the Iron District of North Carolina, supervising the 
contracts with all the furnaces, rolling mills and bloome- 
ries in the State. Before the close of the war, promoted 
to be Major of Artillery on Ordnance duty. At close of 
the war he settled in Greensboro, N. C, where in May, 

1863, he had married the daughter of Hon. John A. Gil- 
mer, and sister of Judge J. A. Gilmer. 

In 1864, when the detailed men were organized under 
Major-General T. H. Holmes, Mr. Brenizer-was elected 
Colonel of the regiment formed from 'Mecklenburg, 
Union, and other counties. He engaged first in the 
Commission and Brokerage business, which was merged 
into a private banking business; he established a branch 
in Charlotte, which eventually became the City Bank of 
Charlotte. 

In the latter part of 1867, he was elected assistant 
cashier of the First National Bank of Charlotte, which 
place he held until September, 1870, when he was elected 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 271 

cashier of the Citizens' Savings Bank of Columbia, S. C, 
an institution having ten branches, but preferring the 
National banking system, he, together with some others, 
organized the Central National Bank of Columbia, of 
which he continued to be cashier for four years, until 
called back to Charlotte to be cashier of the Commercial 
National Bank, in which position he has continued to 
the present time. 

He has always taken great interest in Building and 
Loan Associations and has been Secretary and Treasurer 
of five of such institutions, two in Columbia and three 
in Charlotte. 

Masonry has engaged his attention and he is now Emi- 
nent Commander of Charlotte Commandery Knights 
Templar. 

He is a man of pure christian character, liberal in his 
support of the church; applies one-tenth of his income 
to christian and benevolent institutions. A man of fine 
appearance, polished manners, a thorough accountant, 
and well versed in commercial law. He is a ripe scholar 
and is well posted in literature and history. He speaks 
both French and German with ease. 

He was elected President of the 11th Annual Conven- 
tion of the Young Men's Christian Associations of the 
State, and has recently been elected Elder of the First 
Presbyterian Church of Charlotte. 



272 SKETCHES OF 

W. H. WILLIAMS, 

OF NEWTON. 

The subject of this sketch was born in Morris county, 
N. J., on the 19th day of June, 1848. 

He had very few educational advantages. He lived 
with his father and attended the common schools of the 
country, and when not in school he would assist in look- 
ing after his father's business, selling and shipping iron 
and settling with hands. 

As above stated, Mr. Williams had not even the advan- 
tages of an academic education, yet he had what was 
much better, a good stock of what is vulgarly known as 
"horse sense;" and being thrown with all classes of so- 
ciety and with business men, and being an apt scholar, 
he has very greatly made up for this want. 

He manifested a talent for business when only a boy, 
and had a great disposition to trade, if only to " swap 
pocket knives;" "anything to be trading." 

Mr. Williams married Miss Mattie Finger while very 
young, and this important event caused him to enter into 
regular business for himself earlier than he otherwise 
would, for when a man " catches a bird," the next thing 
is to own a cage to put it in. 

Mr. Williams moved to Newton in 1869, and embarked 
in the mercantile business. He had but very little capi- 
tal in money, but had a large stock of pluck, push, en- 
ergy and confidence, and his success has been great when 
we consider aU the surroundings. We must remember 
that he was not in a great business center, but in a small 
country town, with many difficulties to surmount. The 
railroad facilities for Newton at that time were very un- 
satisfactory. He took a very active part in getting rid 
of these obstructions. 

Mr. Williams continued in the mercantile business 



PROMINENT LIVING NOKTH CAROLINIANS. 273 

until 1883, handling and dealing in general merchan- 
dise, machinery, wagons and buggies, and succeeded. 

In 1883 he assisted in organizing the '' Newton Cotton 
Mills," and was elected President, which office he has 
held all the while. 

When the dull year came on manufacturers of cotton 
the stockholders of the above mills became discouraged, 
and Mr. Williams, having confidence in the business, 
commenced to buy their stock, and to-day he is the sole 
owner and proprietor of the mills, and is adding more 
pindles and increasing the business. 

He has manifested good judgment in the selection of 
his superintendent and hands, and the result has been 
that he is unable to supply the demand for his goods. 
He runs the factory day and night, and his efforts are 
being crowned with the very best results. 

Mr. Williams is uniformly kind to his employees, and 
never forgets to do something for them at Christmas. 

He has been a real benefactor to many poor people. 
Mr. Williams is kind and generous to a fault. He is one 
of that class of men who are friends in deed and in need, 
for when any one is in trouble he does not spend all his 
help in expressions of sympathy, but reaches into his 
pocket and gives a substantial expression of that feeling. 

When a Lodge of the K. of H. was formed in Newton, 
he was elected Dictator. He has been repeatedly elected 
Alderman of the town, and in 1886-'87 was elected a Di- 
rector of the N. G. R. R. 

Mr. Williams has never been a candidate for any office, 
but has always taken an active part in county politics, 
and has had a great deal to do with shaping the politics of 
Catawba county. He has attended nearly all the District 
and State Conventions as a delegate. 

Here we have an example of a poor boy starting in 
1869, without capital, now independent and making 
money very fast, and proving a blessing to his town and 
county, distributing his money with a liberal hand. 

When the Methodist church in Newton was destroyed 

18 



274 SKETCHES OF 

by a cyclone, Mr. Williams (although not a naember of 
that church) was among the first to propose a liberal 
subscription to aid in rebuilding the church, voluntarily 
offering to give all the hardware necessary. This is only 
one among many instances of his liberality. His libe- 
ralitv has all the while abounded. 

ft/ 

M. 0. Sherrill. 



Hoi^. S. B. ALEXANDEE, 

OP MECKLENBURG COUNTY. 

The subject of this sketch is one of the most distin- 
guished farmers that our State has ever produced. 

His father was Dr. Moses Winslow Alexander, son of 
Dr. Jas. McKnitt Alexander and Dorey Winslow. Dr. J. 
McK. Alexander was son of Jno. McKnitt Alexander and 
Margaret Bain. Jno. Mac. was son of James Alexander 
and Margaret McKnitt. James emigrated from Armaugh, 
Ireland. He went to Chester, Pa., thence to Maryland, 
where he died. He had twelve children ; only two came 
to North Carolina, Jno. McKnitt and Hezekiah, in 1742. 

The mother of the subject of this sketch was Violet 
W. Graham, daughter of General Jos. Graham and Isa- 
bella Davidson, of Lincoln county. 

S. B. Alexander was born December 8th, 1840, at Rose- 
dale farm, nine miles north of Charlotte. He was pre- 
pared for college by Capt. Silas Lindsley, at Rocky River 
Academy, Cabarrus county, and at the Wadesboro Insti- 
tute. He entered the University, July, 1856, graduated 
June, 1860. He was married to Miss Emma P. Nichol- 
son, of Halifax, June, 1872. They had six children. His 
wife died October 27th, 1880. He was married to Miss 
Louise Perry, of Franklin, September 16th, 1885. 

He is by profession a farmer. He has been member of 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 275 

the Board of Agriculture, ex-officio Master of the State 
Grange, was Master of State Grange when Department 
was organized, 1877; resigned February, 1879. 

He was elected State Senator, 1878, and served as 
chairman of Committee on Agriculture. 

In 1882, he was again elected to the State Senate and 
re-elected in '84 and 'SQ, serving as chairman of the 
Finance Committee and in '84 he was also chairman of 
Committee, on Military Affairs. 

He entered the army April, 1861, served as private in 
1st Regiment, and from September 1st, to March 31st, 
1862, in the 28th Regiment. He was elected Captain of 
Company "K," 42d Regiment. During the last six months 
of 1864, he was detached and served on the stafi' of Major- 
General Hoke as Inspector General ; served in Eastern 
North Carolina and Virginia. He surrendered with 
Johnston's army at Greensboro. 



Rev. GEORGE W. SANDERLIN, 

OF BESTON, 

The Democratic candidate for State Auditor, was born 
of well-to-do parents in Camden county, North Carolina^ 
on the 22d day of February, 1843, and is therefore about 
45 years of age. When five years old his parents moved 
to Elizabeth City, N, C, which place was his home up to 
the breaking out of the war. When fourteen years old 
he was sent to a preparatory school at Reynoldson, in 
Gates county, and at fifteen entered the freshman class at 
Wake Forest College, where he took high rank as a 
scholar. The war breaking out, he left school and en- 
tered the army, joining an infantry company from Gates 
county, of which he afterwards became Captain. 

He fought in the battles of New Berne (where he was 



276 SKETCHES OF 

shot twice), Hanover C. H., Gaines' Mill, Cold Harbor, 
Malvern Hill, and all of the seven days' battles around 
Richmond, Cedar Run, 2d Bull Run and 2d Manassas, 
Ox Hill (or Chantilly), capture of Harper's Ferry, Sharps- 
burg, first and second Fredericksburg, the Wilderness, 
Ohancellorsville (where he was within twenty steps of 
Stonewall Jackson when he fell), Gettysburg (^where he 
had three companies in the famous third day's charge 
with Pickett), and in all the subsequent battles fought by 
the Army of Northern Virginia around Richmond and 
Petersburg, up to Appomattox Court-House. He was 
never taken prisoner, never in hospital but one day, 
never had but one furlough (and no fight occurred in his 
;absence), and the history of the Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia was well-nigh his history throughout. He was 
shot a number of times, though never seriously wounded, 
and entering the army a private was seven times promo- 
ted, twice on the field of battle — at New Berne and Gettys- 
burg. 

After the war he returned to his home at Elizabeth 
City, N. C. In the following fall he went to the South- 
ern Baptist Theological Seminary, then located at Green- 
ville, S. C, now at Louisville, Ky., where he graduated 
in ten of the eleven schools of that famous institution. 
Returning to his native State he was ordained to the 
ministry in the College Chapel at Wake Forest College 
in the spring of 1868. 

In 1871 he received a call to the charge of the Frank- 
lin Square Baptist church of Baltimore, which call he 
accepted, filling the position shere six years. His health 
failing from overwork, he returned to his plantation in 
Wayue county, N. C, where he has been engaged exclu- 
sively in farming for the past twelve years. It is as a far- 
mer that Mr. Sanderlin has done some of his best work. In 
the introduction of new machinery, new crops, new meth- 
ods of cultivation, &c., &c., and, withal, making these 
known to his brother farmers by tongue and pen — by 
public addresses and written communications to agricul- 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 277 

tural journals and magazines, he has done a work inval- 
uable to the agricultural interests of the State. The news- 
papers of the State have often referred to him as the 
'' Father of Upland Rice Culture in North Carolina." 

The above facts are quoted from the State Chronicle^ 
which further says of Mr. Sanderlin as an orator: " He 
has a charm, an ease, a grace of manner that wins any 
audience. He is a man of fine appearance, and will im- 
press any assembly with the fact that he is above the 
average." His recent nomination for State Auditor has 
given great satisfaction to the Democratic party. 



Dr. p. L. murphy, 

SUPERINTENDENT OF THE W. N. C. INSANE ASYLUM. 

Dr. P. L. Murphy, the able and efficient Superinten- 
dent of the Insane Asylum, at Morgantou, N. C.,isin the 
prime of life, having been born in Sampson county on 
the 23d October, 1848. His father was Patrick Murphy, 
Esq., a lawyer and farmer, of Sampson county, of promi- 
nence in his day, and a man of the highest character 
and most sterlini^j integrity. His paternal grandfather 
was a native of the West coast of Scotland, from whence 
he immigrated to Wilmington, N. C, about the year 
1767. It is said that the family name was changed just 
before leaving the old country, from MacMurdock to 
Murphy. 

Dr. Murphy's maternal grandfather was Col. Wm. Fai- 
son, of Sampson county, who was a man of note in that 
section of North Carolina, and accumulated what was 
considered a large fortune in earlier years. The Faison 
family are descendants of the French Huguenots, and 
came to North Carolina from Hampton, Va., about 1750. 
For vigor of intellect, industry, perseverance and energy, 



278 SKETCHES OF 

they are noted wherever known, and for the strictest 
integrity they stand pre-eminent. 

Dr. Murphy's mother died when he was quite young, 
and he was early throw^n on his own resources. He was 
first sent to school at Clinton, Sampson county, and from 
there went to a military school at Hillsboro, and then to 
Bingham School at Oaks, in Orange county. He was a 
student there when the school was removed to Mebane- 
ville, in 1865. 

Leaving school in 1867, Dr. Murphy taught school in 
Sampj^on county and worked on his father's farm for a 
year or two, until he went to the University of Virginia, 
and afterwards graduated in Medicine at the University 
of Maryland, in March, 1871. After graduating he 
practiced medicine in Sampson county and Wilmington, 
N. C, until 1879. 

In March, 1879, Dr. Murphy was elected Assistant 
Physician in the Western Lunatic Asylum at Staunton, 
Virginia. He remained there till March, 1882, when a 
change took place in the political rulers of Virginia, (an 
ami-Democratic party coming into power,) ai^d all the 
old officers of the Asylum were removed except Dr. 
Murphy and one other physician. Dr. Murph}^ feeling 
that his position was embarrassing to the party in power 
and to himself, resigned, after obtaining a good deal of 
experience in the treatment and management of the 
insane. 

In December, 1882, Dr. Murphy was elected Superin- 
tendent, of the Western North Carolina Insane Asylum, 
at Morganton, N C, his experience in the Western Vir- 
ginia Asylum ^iviug him a great advantage over all 
competitors. His successful management of the Asylum 
at Morganton, shows that the Board of Directors did not 
make a mistake in the selection of Dr. Murphy as Super- 
intendent. Being of an amiable and kind disposition, 
he seems peculiarly fitted and qualified for the responsi- 
ble po.sition which he now holds, and the good he has 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 279 

done to poor, unfortunate mankind, will be remembered 
while time lasts. 

Dr. Murphy also holds the responsible position as a 
member of the Examining Board of the North Carolina 
State Medical Society, a place which is considered the 
highest honor to fill, and which he has done for a num- 
ber of years to the entire satisfaction of the Medical fra- 
ternity of the State. 

In 1878, Dr. Murphy married Miss Bettie Bumgardner, 
of Augusta county, Virginia, a lady of rare accomplish- 
ments and well adapted by education and family train- 
ing as a help-meet to the responsible position which her 
husband occupies. 

Dr. Murphy told the writer of this short sketch, that 
whatever measure of success he has attained in the world, 
is due to the early religious training of parents and the 
kindness of many friends. 



Capt. armistead burwell, 

OF CHARLOTTE, 

Was born in Hillsboro, Orange county, on October 
22d, 1 839, and is a son of the Rev. Robert Burwell, D. D., 
who was then the pastor of the Presbyterian church at 
that place. He entered Davidson College in 1856, and 
graduated in 1859 with first honor. He then engaged in 
teaching, and was so employed at Princeton, Arkansas, 
when, in the Spring of 1861, he enlisted in a cavalry 
company which afterwards became a part of the 3d Regi- 
ment, Arkansas Cavalry. He served with this command 
in Missouri and Arkansas, and afterwards in the cam- 
paigns in Tennessee, Mississippi and Georgia till severely 
wounded on July 28th, 1864, at Atlanta. He was Adju- 
tant of his regiment, and in 1863 was commissioned as 



280 SKETCHES OF 

Captain and Assistant Adjutant General, and assigned to 
duty upon the staff of Brigadier General F. C. Arm- 
strong. 

After the close of the war he resumed teaching at 
Charlotte, and while so engaged devoted himself to the 
study of law. He was licensed to practice upon exami- 
nation by the Supreme Court, and in 1869 began his 
career as a lawyer. He was elected to the State Senate 
in 1880, and since 1877 has been one of the Directors of 
the North Carolina Railroad Company, appointed by the 
Governor of the State. 

Captain Burwell's professional career has been emi- 
nently successful. He practiced first in copartnership 
with Calvin E Greer, Esq., then with Ex-Governor 
Vance, till the latter was made Senator, and since that 
time with Piatt D. Walker, Esq., under the well known 
firm-name of Burwell & Walker, which has for several 
years been doing a commanding and lucrative practice. 

Captain Burwell is of quiet and thoughtful demeanor, 
unostentatious in the court room and elsewhere, and is 
universally regarded as one of the ablest and best law- 
yers in the State. 

His home life is beautiful. Mrs. Burwell, nee Miss Ella 
Jenkins, of Salisbury, is the charm of a large circle of 
acquaintances, while their pretty daughters Miss Bird 
and Miss Fannie, just budding into womanhood, and 
bright little Armistead, nine years old, the only son, 
render their hospitable home in Charlotte a place of 
exceeding interest and attractiveness. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 2&1 

*NEEDHAM B. BROUGHTON, Esq., 

OF RALEIGH, 

Was born near Auburn, Wake county, on the 14th of 
February, 1848 His father died before he was seven 
years of age, leaving the widowed mother to the care of 
seven children, four sons and three daughters. Soon 
after this the family moved to the city of Raleigh, where 
the}^ all struggled into womanhood and manhood and 
have maintained worthy and deserving characters. The 
subject of this sketch attended the public schools of the 
city for five years, and in his thirteenth year entered the 
office of the Raleigh Register, John W. Syme, Esq., editor 
and proprietor, to learn the art of printing. He com- 
pleted his trade under John L. Pennington, Esq., editor 
and proprietor of the Daily Progress, about the close of 
the war in 1865. Just after the war, work being very 
slack in Raleigh, he went to Richmond, Virginia, and 
found employment for about six months on the Examiner. 
From this place he went to Washington City and 
obtained work on the Congressional Globe, staying here 
till the close of Congress in 1867. Leaving this city in 
the mouth of August he went to Baltimore, Philadelphia 
and then to New York City. Speaking of his first two 
weeks in the great metrof)olis, he says it was the sever- 
est trial of his life up to this time. For two weeks he 
searched in vain for work — his scanty means were 
exhausted, and just as hope had almost departed he 
obtained one day's work on the New Fork Wolrd, and 
then two weeks on the Herald, and for three months fol- 
lowing found constant engagement on the same great 
paper. He left that office to take a "sit" on the i^ura^ 
New Yorker, the great agricultural paper, which position 
he held until leaving New York City, in February, 1869, 
he returned to the city of Raleigh, being then just 
twenty-one years of age. 



282 SKETCHES OF 

In May, 1869, Mr. Broughton married Miss Caroline 
R. Lougee, daughter of Wm. J. Lougee, Esq., of the city 
of Raleigh. To this union have been given six children, 
five of whom are now living. 

In 187i4, he united with Mr. C. B. Edwards in purcha- 
sing the job office outfit of the old Raleigh Standard and 
established a job printing office. The owner of the 
Standard outfit (the late Maj. Wm. A. Smith) not only 
sold to these young fellows on credit, but he so admired 
their spunk as to lend them one hundred dollars, saying 
that he would never foreclose on them while he found 
them with coats off, hard at work. The foreclosure was 
therefore never made, for up to the present time they 
have never violated that rule. They can still be found 
with coats off, hard at work. Thev are now at the head 
of one of the most complete and extensive printing and 
binding establishmeots in the South. Mr. Edwards is 
one of the finest printers and business men in the State, 
while Mr. Broughton combines the merits of a good 
printer, manager and solicitor. 

The subject of this sketch is a striking example of a 
self-made man. From poverty he has come to a good 
position; from ignorance, to knowledge and culture; 
from insignificance, to a wide reputation. He is a man 
of integrity; his countenance is frank, his nature, sympa- 
thetic, his address, manly and easy, his conversation is 
interesting and winning. A friend to the poor and to 
those who are struggling for success in life. 

Mr. Broughton has been a very prominent worker in 
the cause of temperance and has filled the highest office 
in the order of Good Templars, having been the Grand 
Chief Templar of North Carolina for five years. 

The success of prohibition in and about Raleigh for 
two years was largely due to the efforts of Mr. Broughton. 

He is a leading deacon in the Raleigh Baptist Taber- 
nacle, and is Superintendent of the Sunday-school, which 
is one of the largest in the State, and Secretary of the 
Baptist State Convention. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 283 

For ten years or more he has been one of the School 
Comodittee of Raleigh township, and to him is largely 
due the present efficiency of the schools. 

Mr. Broughton has never in any way aspired to politi- 
cal honors although often urged by party friends to do 
so. But in the recent Democratic Convention of the 
Fourth Congressional District, a large number of dele- 
gates came instructed for him without his knowledge or 
consent, and he objected to and prevented the presenta- 
tion of his name as a candidate. 

Mr. Broughton is a man of literary attainments. He 
has been a frequent contributor to journals in our State. 
During his life he has often spoken in public, displaying 
vigor of thought and general information. 



ROBERT M. GATES, Esq.^ 

OF CHARLOTTE, 

Was born in Cleveland (then Lincoln) county, N. C, 
of Scotch-Irish parents — his father, James S. Gates being 
an Elder in the Long Creek Presbyterian church. He 
remained on his father's farm till he was 23 years of age. 
In 1853 he came to Charlotte and took a position as 
salesman in the grocery store of W. W. Elms. Going in 
1854 to Texas, he remained only a year, when he returned 
to his native State and again located in Charlotte. He 
now entered the grocery and cotton business in partner- 
ship with Col. L. S. Williams, which was continued for 
some years. 

In 1862 he entered the Confederate service where he 
remained till the close of the war, surrendering with 
Lee's army at Appomattox. 

Returning to Charlotte he resumed his former busi- 
ness. In 'G9 he married Ella, daughter of the late John 



284 SKETCHES OF 

J. Blackwood, who was a successful business man and for 
many years cashier of the Bank of Charlotte. 

In 1872, Mr. Gates retired from business — giving his 
time to rebuilding and improving the Central Hotel 
(owned by himself and Messrs. Wriston & Sanders) — 
making it the largest and handsomest hotel in the State. 
He served the city and county at various times as Alder- 
man and Commissioner, and has been continuously a 
Director in the 1st National Bank of Charlotte since 1866. 

In 1880, he, in company with his nephews D. W., J. E. 
and J. M. Gates, erected the first cotton mill in Charlotte. 
He was made President of this successful corporation, 
and in January, 1888, another company was organized 
to build a large cotton mill — "The Victor," of which he 
is also President, 

Mr. Gates has been eminently successful in all his 
business enterprises, being noted for his good judgment 
and practical common sense. He has a beautiful home 
in Charlotte, and a very interesting family, among them 
three daughters, nearly grown, who seem to have inherited 
the graces of the mother and the strength of character of 
the father. 



Col. HAMILTON C. JONES, 

OF CHARLOTTE, 

Was born in 1837, in Salisbury. Son of the late 
Hamilton C. Jones and Eliza Henderson, daughter of 
Maj. Pleasant Henderson, of Chapel Hill. Entered the 
University at Chapel Hill in 1854, and graduated in class 
'58. He studied law at the University and procured 
license to practice in Spring of '59. Was nominated by 
Whigs of Rowan county for House of Commons in 1860^ 
but was defeated. Took part in the struggle in Presi- 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 285 

dential campaign of 1860 as an advocate of the Bell and 
Everett electors. At this time he was first Lieutenant of 
Rowan Rifle Guard and went with that organization to 
Smithville after the Forts were seized. Upon the organi- 
zation of the State troops, he was appointed by Governor 
Ellis, Captain of Company K of 5th Regiment of which 
the late Duncan K. McRae was Colonel, and served with 
this regiment until the battle of Williamsburg on 5th 
May, 1862, during which battle he was severely wounded. 
Before he was sufficiently recovered to resume active ser- 
vice, he was made Lieutenant Colonel of 57th N. C. Regi- 
ment. With this Regiment he joined the army of 
Northern Virginia in the Fall of same year. He participa- 
ted in the battle of Fredericksburg, the battle of Chan- 
cellorsville the May following, and in the Gettysburg 
campaign thereafter. On 7th November, 1863, he was 
captured, together with the greater part of Hoke's and 
Hayes' Louisiana Brigades, at the affair at Rappahannock 
railroad bridge. He was thereafter imprisoned at the 
old Capitol Prison in Washington and subseqiiiently at 
Johnson's Island in Lake Erie, until February, 1865, 
when he was sent South and specially exchanged in ad- 
vance of any general exchange. He took command of 
his regiment before Petersburg, its Colonel, General 
Archibald C. Godwin, having been in the meantime pro- 
moted to Brigadier General. A few weeks after his 
taking command of his regiment, occurred the battle of 
Hare's Hill before Petersburg, on the 25th March, which 
was really the commencement of the struggle that ter- 
minated in the fall of Richmond. In this battle in an 
asfeauit upon General Grant's works, Col. Jones was again 
wounded and disabled. 

After the surrender Col. Jones settled at Salisbury, his 
native place, and resumed the practice of law, where he 
remained until August, 1867, when he removed to Char- 
lotte and formed a copartnership with General Robert D. 
Johnston for the practice of law — a copartnership which 
continued uninterruptedly for twenty years. Shortly 



286 SKETCHES OF 

after the forming of this copartnership, the firm of Jones 
& Johnston entered upon the publication of a daily 
newspaper, called The Charlotte News, which venture 
proving unsuccessful was abandoned after the lapse of a 
few months. 

In the Fail of 1869, upon the death of the late Judge 
Osborne, then Senator from Mecklenburg, Colonel Jones 
was elected as a Democrat to fill out Judge Osborne's un- 
expired term, and he was re-elected in 1870 and was a 
member of the Senate during the memorable impeach- 
ment trial of W. W. Holden, which resulted in his con- 
viction and deposition from the office of Governor. At 
the close of this term. Colonel Jones retired from politi- 
cal life and has never since been a candidate before the 
people. 

In 1885, he was appointed by President Cleveland 
United States District Attorney for the Western District 
of North Carolina, which office he still holds. 

Colonel Jones was married in 1873 to Miss Connie 
Myers, daughter of Colonel Wm, R. Myers, of Charlotte. 

Besides his official duties as United States District 
Attorney, Colonel Jones continues to do a large practice 
in the State Courts, and in this practice has associated 
with him, under the firm name of Jones & Tillett, Mr. 
Chas. W. Tillett, a talented and promising young lawyer, 
late a resident of Rockingham, in Richmond county. 
Col. Jones was for many years prior to his appointment 
as United States District Attorney, Chairman of the 
Democratic Executive Committee of Mecklenburg county, 
performing the duties of that position with entire accept- 
ability to all concerned except the Republicans. 

He has always had a large and lucrative practice and 
great influence at the bar. He is very effective as an 
advocate and jury lawyer, and is noted for his great 
kindness and consideration for his professional brethren, 
especially the young men of the profession. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 287 

Col. M. L. McCOHKLE, 

OF NEWTON. 

The subject of this sketch was born on Mountain 
Creek, Catawba county (then Lincohi), November 17th, 
1817. His father was the son of Francis McCorkle, who 
fought gallantly at the battle of Ramsaur's Mill. His 
mother was Elizabeth M. Abernethy, daughter of J. D. 
Abernethy, of Lincoln county. 

He attended the old field schools at intervals and 
entered Davidson College in 1838, but when half advan- 
ced in his junior year straitened circumstances com- 
pelled him to leave college. After teaching for one year 
he was enabled to re-enter college, and joining his old 
class, he graduated in 1843. He studied law under Chief 
Justice Pearson at Mocksville; obtained license to prac- 
tice in 1846. He settled in Newton, Catawba county. 
He was appointed by Hon. John M. Dick, Clerk of the 
Superior Court to fill an unexpired term, and was elected 
to that office in 1846 and held it until 1850. 

In 1850, he was married to Miss J. M. A. Wilfong, only 
daughter of the late John Wilfong, of Hickory. 

He volunteered in the late war, raised a company and 
was elected Captain. His company served in the 23d 
Regiment State Troops. Near the close of the war he 
was elected Colonel of the Reserves. 

In 1864 he was elected to the State Senate and re-elected 
in 1866. He was elected to the State Constitutional Con- 
vention of 1875. Col. McCorkle practices in all the 
courts and has met with success. He is one of the best 
and purest of men. Though he is in his seventy-first 
year, he is yet vigorous, mentally and physically, and 
can handle the knottiest question of law or climb the 
tallest tree. 



288 SKETCHES OF 

Capt. MELVIL E. carter, 

OF ASHEVILLE, 

Is a descendant of the Virginia famil}^ of the same 
naoae; his ancestors came to North Carolina just at the 
close of the revolutionary war, in which they had taken 
part. One of his great-grandfathers served under Wash- 
ington and was in twenty-six battles. 

The subject of this sketch was born in Madison county 
the 27th of February, 1843. He received his education 
at Stephen Lee's Classical and Mathematical School of 
Asheville, and at the University under Governor Swain. 
He studied law under the late Judge Bailey and was 
licensed to practice in the County Courts in January, 
3867, and in the Superior Courts in 1869. He has con- 
tinued actively in the practice of his profession at Ashe- 
ville since obtaining his license. 

In politics he has always been a Democrat. He was 
elected to the House of Representatives in 1876 and 
re-elected in 1878 and in 1880. He served in the Legis- 
lature as Chairman of the Committee on Internal Im- 
provements; Chairman of the Committee on Elections, 
an active member of the committee to compromise and 
settle the State debt and other committees of importance. 
He took an active part in the legislation that led to the 
completion of the Western N. C. Railroad to his section 
of the State and aided in the passage of the bill to com- 
promise the State debt. 

Mr. Carter served as Captain of Company A, of the 
64th N. C. Regiment, in the late war. His regiment was 
captured at Cumberland Gap in 1863 and remained in 
prison until the war closed. However, Mr. Carter escaped 
with a few men when his regiment was captured. He 
raised another company, but was captured in Tennessee 
while in service under General J. C. Breckinridge and 
carried North by way of Nashville, Louisville and John- 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 289 

son's Island, and while in the passenger depot at Jersey 
City, with other prisoners, awaiting a train to carry them 
to Fort Delaware, like Hop O'my Thumb in the Fairy 
Tale, he stole the Giant's magic boots and again escaped 
and found his way to Washington, and there gathered 
valuable information for his cause which he succeeded in 
carrying through Grant's lines to Richmond, receiving 
the thanks of General Breckinridge. 

After Mr. Carter's last term in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, his law practice increased so much that he 
was forced to retire from the political arena, and he now 
enjoys a very large practice. He is in love with his pro- 
fession and has no political aspirations. He belongs in 
the front rank as a lawyer, being both a good jurist and 
a good advocate. He is a man of pleasant address, socia- 
ble and affable in domestic life, of high moral character. 

Mr. Carter married Miss Susie R. Rawls, daughter of 
Dr. B. F. Rawls, of South Carolina. They have six 
interesting children. 



Hon. RICHARD HENRY BATTLE, 

OF RALEIGH, 

Was born in the town of Louisburg, December 3d, 
1835. His parents were the late Hon. Wm. Horn Battle 
and Lucy Martin Battle {7iee Plummer). 

He was educated in the village schools and at the State 
University at Chapel Hill. He graduated at the age of 
18 in a class of sixty members, in June, 1854, with first 
honors. He was elected tutor in the University soon 
after graduation and taught successively Mathematics 
and Greek until his resignation in June, 1858. He 
studied law under his father while teaching in the Uni- 
versity and began the practice at Wadesboro in Decem- 
ber, 1858, and continued the practice there in partner- 
19 



290 SKETCHES OF 

ship with the late Judge Alexander Little, until he 
entered the Confederate Army, early in 1862. In March, 
1861, by appointment of Judge R. M. Saunders, he 
became Clerk and Master in Equity for Anson county. 

He served as 1st Lieutenant of Company I, in the 43d 
Eegiment of N. C. Troops, during the campaign of 1862, 
and his health failing in September of that year, he 
accepted the unsought appointment of Private Secretary 
to Governor Z. B. Vance, and moved to Raleigh, where 
he has lived since. 

In 1864, he was appointed State Auditor by Governor 
Vance to fill a vacancy caused by resignation of Hon. S. 
F. Phillips, and was afterwards elected by the Legisla- 
ture to that office, which he held until it was declared 
vacant by the Federal authorities in April, 1865. 

As soon as the courts were open he began the practice 
of the law in partnership with Hon. S. F. Phillips, and 
afterwards upon the retirement of his father from the 
Supreme Court, he practiced with him and his brother 
Hon. Kemp P. Battle, in the firm name of W. H. Battle 
& Sons. His father and brother retiring from practice, 
he and S. F. Mordecai, Esq., have practiced law together, 
as Battle & Mordecai, since January, 1876. During all 
these years he has enjoyed a leading and lucrative prac- 
tice. 

Mr. Battle has never sought office, but twice he was 
nominated, without his consent, by the Democratic 
County Conventions for Wake county for a seat in the 
Legislature, in 1872 for the House of Representatives, and 
in 1880 for the Senate, and in 1875 he was nominated 
almost unanimously for a seat in the Constitutional Con- 
vention of that year. He made vigorous campaigns and 
though defeated received more than the vote of his party 
in each of these contests. In 1877 he was appointed by 
Governor Vance a State Director for the 4th Congres- 
sional District of the Western North Carolina Railroad, 
upon its re-organization, and was continued as such by 
successive appointments until the sale of the road by the 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 291 

Legislature in 1881. He also served one year as au 
Alderntian of the city of Raleigh and his services have 
been in demand by one of its leading banks and by other 
business enterprises as Director. He has also by election 
of the Legislature, been a member of the Board of Trus- 
tees of the State University for many years. 

Mr. Battle has been a faithful Democrat since the war, 
and from 1870 to 1888, he was a member of its State 
Central Committee, and during the campaigns of 1884 
and 1886 he served acceptably as Chairman of the State 
Committee. 

He has been a member of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church since his early manhood and Senior Warden of the 
Church of the Good Shepherd, Raleigh, since its organi- 
zation in 1874. His services in the State Conventions of 
his Church were recognized by an election as Deputy to 
the General (triennial) Convention of the Episcopal 
Church in 1886. 

Mr. Battle was married in November, 1860, to Annie 
RuflSn, second daughter of the late Hon. Thos. S. Ashe, 
a woman of rare endowments of mind and person, and 
who died in July, 1883. He has six living children, 
three sons and three daughters. 



JOHN H. FERKEE, Esq., 

OF RANDOLPH COUNTY. 

John H. Ferree, Treasurer of Randleman Manufactur- 
ing Company, Randleman, N. C, was born near Morgan- 
ton, Burke county, in 1839. 

His father, Rev. Joseph D. Ferree, a local preacher of 
the Methodist church, was for twelve years Clerk of the 
County and Superior Courts of Burke. Being a man of 
limited means, John H. only received such educational 



292 SKETCHES OF 

advantages as were ofifered by the schools of his com- 
munity. 

In his early life he clerked in the store of W. C. Ervin, 
of Morganton. He was excused from field service in the 
Confederate army from physical disability, but was 
employed by the Government as clerk for two years. 

He was for a short time after the surrender Clerk of 
the Court for Burke county, and also engaged in mer- 
chandising in Morganton under the firm name of Walton, 
Caldwell & Ferree. In 1866 he removed to Norfolk, Vir- 
ginia, and engaged in merchandising, where he remained 
for two years. 

In 1868 he located in Randolph county, N. C, and 
became interested in manufacturing cotton, and has since 
been a prominent figure in all the manufacturing inter- 
ests of Randolph county. 

In 1868, he and John B. Randleman bought the old 
Union Mills on Deep River, Randolph county, of George 
W. Swepson, and they were incorporated as the Randle- 
man Manufacturing Company, and Mr. Ferree has been 
its Treasurer since. They run five thousand spindles 
and two hundred and twenty-six Plaid looms. 

In 1879 and '80, the Randleman Manufacturing Com- 
pany with several employees built the Naomi Falls Fac- 
tory, of which John H. Ferree was elected and is still 
President. He is also Treasurer of the Plaidvilie Manu- 
facturing Company, and a stockholder and Director in 
the Powhatan N. Y. Company, all of Randolph county. 

These mills employ about seven hundred and fifty 
hands and support a population of two thousand 
people. Mr. Ferree was also interested and aided in 
building the Franklinsville Bag Mills, The Cedar Falls 
Manufacturing Company, Central Manufacturing Com- 
and the J. M. Worth Manufacturing Company. 

He has also been a stockholder in Columbia Manufac- 
turing Company. 

He is a stockholder and Director of the Greensboro 
Female College, a Trustee of Trinity College and a 
County Commissioner of Randolph county. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTB CAROLINIANS. 293 

Mr. Ferree married the daughter of his partner, Mr. 
John B. Randleman, in 1873. 

You will seldom find a more attractive and happy 
Christian home than that of John H. Ferree, where 
father, mother and children will dispense a liberal and 
genuine hospitality. 

Mr. Randleman died in 1879, and Mr. Ferree has since 
most successfully conducted the large and constantly 
increasing interest of Randleman Manufacturing Com- 
pany. 

It will be seen from this sketch that few men have 
done more to institute, promote and develop large inter- 
ests that contribute to the wealth and prosperity of North 
Carolina, than John H. Ferree. 

You may trust John H. Ferree as a reliable friend and 
Christian gentleman. He has been a friend to many 
who called upon him when in need, and many hearts 
nov/ throb in grateful remembrance of kind acts bestowed 
by him. He is a Trustee of St. Paul's M. E. Church, 
South, at Randleman, and Superintendent of the Sunday 
school. He gives largely of his ample means to the sup- 
port of the Gospel and all benevolent causes. « 

There have been no strikes at Randleman. 



Capt. JOHN M. ODELL, 

OP CONCORD, 

Son of James and Anna Odell, was born eight miles 
north of Asheboro, in Randolph county, N. C , on the 
20th day of January, 1831. He was reared on a farm 
and resided at his native home till 'Zl years old. During 
his boyhood days he attended the neighborhood schools 
with the exception of a short time when he was a student 



294 SKETCHES OF 

at Middleton Academy, in Randolph county. From the 
age of 21 to 24 he taught school. He then clerked in 
the store of the Cedar Falls Manufacturing Company for 
one year. The company was then changed to the Cedar 
Falls Company, Mr. Odell taking an interest therein, but 
was still retained as clerk in the store of the new com- 
pany till 1868, when he was elected agent for the same. 
In the fall of 1869 he resigned this position and moved 
to Concord, N. C, where he engaged in merchandising 
under the firm name of Odell, Curtis & Company, who 
did a very large and successful wholesale and retail busi- 
ness till 1874, when he sold all his interest in Concord 
and removed to Greensboro, N. C, where he continued 
in the wholesale and retail general merchandise business, 
under the firm name of Odell & Company, for some 
years. 

He was one of the charter members of the National 
Bank of Greensboro, which was organized in 1876, when 
he was elected a Director in said Bank, which position 
he still retains. 

In 1877 he bought the McDonald Cotton Mills in Con- 
cord, N. C, which was incor[)orated in 1878 as the Odell 
Manufacturing Company, with J. M. Odell, President. 
His home, however, was still in Greensboro till 1880, 
when he again moved to Concord and devoted most of 
his attention to the business of said Company. 

In 1882, about one hundred thousand dollars was 
added to the capital stock of the Company; a new build- 
ing 72x131 feet, three stories high, was built near the old 
mills and filled with the latest and most improved ma- 
chinery. In 1886 the buildings were again enlarged and 
today they are among the largest Plaid Mills in the 
South, manufacturing not only plaids but also seamless 
bags, towels and cottonades. 

Captain Odell is also President of the Durham Cotton 
Manufacturing Company, Durham, N. C, the J. M. Odell 
Manufacturing Company; Bynums, Chatham county, 
N. C, the Salisbury Cotton Mills, Salisbury, N. C, the 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 295 

Cannon Manufacturing Company, Concord, N. C, and 
also the Concord National Bank. 

On March 9th, 1854, he was happily married to Miss 
Rebecca C. Kirkman, of Randolph county, who still lives • 
to enjoy with him the comforts and conveniences of their 
elegant mansion and grounds in Concord, N. C, together 
with such pleasures as their ample fortune can contribute 
to a Christian home. 

John M. Odell entered the Confederate service in 1861 
and was elected Captain of Company M, 22d N. C. In- 
fantry. 

Capt. Odell's has been a life of remarkable success; his 
accumulations have been stead}' and large. He has 
always been a model of morality and integrity and is 
to day a fine type of the Southern Christian gentleman, 
having for many years been an officer in the M. E. 
Church, South. Though strict in all business transac- 
tions he is very liberal and his deeds of kindness and 
charity have been many and large. 

As an organizer and manager of employees he has 
scarcely a superior. Gentle, kind, urbane, yet firm in 
his discipline. 

No strikes, no friction, nothing has ever occurred to 
mar the peaceful and pleasant relations existing between 
employer and employees of the Odell Manufacturing 
Company. 

Captain Odell has three children, two sons and one 
daughter. His oldest son, W. R. Odell, is Secretary and 
Treasurer of the Odell Manufacturing Company. 



296 SKETCHES OF 

Hon. AVALTEE LEAK STEELE, 



% 



OF ROCKINGHAM. 

Walter Leak Steele was born at Steele's Mills, on Little 
River, Richmond county, on the 18th of April, 1823. 
After the death of his father, in 1838, his mother removed 
to Rockingham. Soon thereafter, he was sent to Boyd- 
ton, Virginia, and entered the preparatory school, under 
the charge of Rev. Solomon Lea In August, he joined 
the Freshman class of Randolph Macon College, but re- 
mained connected with the institution only a few months. 
Subsequently, he matriculated at Wake Forest College, 
and passed through the Freshman class. Then he went 
to school in Wadesboro to Rev. John Burke. In Janua- 
ry, 1840, entered the Freshman class of the University 
of North Carolina, and continued in the institute until 
September, when, on account of a seeming disagreement 
with the Faculty, he was pei^mitted to retire He returned 
in January, 1841, and after a hard struggle, succeeded in 
inducing the Faculty to believe that, if reinstated, he 
would demonstrate that he would "lead a new life" and 
avail himself of the advantages which he had neglected. 
Rev. Dr. Mitchell, then a Professor, did all he could to 
assist him, and thus gained his high admiration for the 
qualities of the Doctor's heart. He was obliged to go 
back one year, and was graduated in 1844. His grade 
was second, getting first on Mathematics and all other 
branches except the Languages. If he had been as lucky 
on the latter as on the former, his grade would have been 
number one In that class, amongst others, were William 
I. Battle, Robert H. Cowan, Rev. P. H. Dalton, L. C. Ed- 
wards, Alfred S. Foster, James H. Horner, Thomas Ruffin, 
Rev. S. A. Stanfield, Rev. Geo. B. Wetmoreand Col. E. C. 
Yellowley. 

He was married on the 27th of June, 1844, to Harriet 
A. Crawford, the youngest daughter of Thomas Crawford, 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 297 

of Paris, Tennessee. He commenced reading law, but did 
not get license until many years afterwards. 

In 1846, after a hard struggle, he was elected a mem- 
ber of the House of Commons of the General Assembly, 
and was re-elected in 1848 and 1850. In 1852, he was 
chosen Senator from Richmond and Robeson, and at that 
session was chosen by the Legislature one of the Trustees 
of the University, a position which he has held ever 
since, except three or four years, when the institute was 
under the control of a political party. In 1854 he was 
again a Commoner. He was defeated in 1856 for the 
Senate, but elected in 1858. In 1861, he was the Secre- 
tary of the State Convention which passed the ordinance 
of separation, and remained in the session of that body 
until its final adjournment. 

In 1854, he introduced the bill incorporating the Wil- 
mington, Charlotte & Rutherford Railroad Company. 
As introduced, the road extended only to Charlotte, but 
it was amended, on motion of Gen'l John Gray Bynum, 
so as to go to Rutherfordton. After the bill passed the 
House, it was taken to the Senate, and passed that body 
under the charge of the late Judge Thomas S. Ashe. At 
the first meeting of the stockholders, he was elected one 
of the Board of Directors, and continued to act as such 
until the property passed out of the hands of the original 
owners. This position he held during " the war between 
the States," and was in consequence exempted from mil- 
itary service. He offered to raise a company of Cavalry, 
but the offer was rejected by the Confederate authofities. 
He was ^'in service" a few months, in the regiment of 
State troops under command of Col. 0. G. Rand. 

After the war he remained quietly at home until the 
passage of the Reconstruction Acts. These he opposed, 
on the hustings, as a flagrant violation of the Constitu- 
tion, and an outrage upon Republican institutions. He 
entertains the same opinions now, and no lawyer any- 
where differs from him. 

In 1872, he was an Electoral candidate of the Demo- 



298 SKETCHES OF 

cratic party, and in 1876 was chosen a Representative in 
Congress from the 6th District, receiving nearly 7,000 
majority. He was re-elected in 1878. Durins: the cam- 
paign of that year, he publicly announced that he should 
not seek the nomination again. In 1880 he was suc- 
ceeded by Hon. Clement Dowd, and has remained 'in 
private life ever since, and expects to continue it. 

During his service in Congress, he was a member of 
the Committees on Agriculture, Revolutionary Pensions, 
the Public Lands and the Electoral Count. He made 
but few speeches on the floor, and published two which 
he did not make. One of them was upon the Silver ques- 
tion and the other upon the Tariff. The main speech 
which he did make was in vindication of the South 
against the aspersions of the Republican party, and 
which his friends thought was a creditable production. 
His reply to Mr. Frye, of Maine, — who interrupted him 
— being a quotation from Hamlet, effectually squelched 
that gentleman. From the Committee on Agriculture, 
he made a report on a bill offered by Mr. Sopp, of Iowa, 
which so harpooned the bill and its author that both were 
defeated, Mr. S. failing to get the nomination of his 
party. 

After his retirement from Congress, he was elected 
President of the Pee Dee Manufacturing Company, a cor- 
poration in which he was a stockholder, and is now its 
President. The mill has done well, and neither that nor 
any other cotton mill in the South, needs any " protec- 
tion " either for its stockholders or its "laboring" men 
and women. He did not, while in Congress, spend all 
his own money and that which he could borrow, but 
brought back the njost of his salary, and invested it in 
cotton manufacturing and other property. 

Gov. Scales nominated, and the Senate confirmed him, 
without his knowledge, a Director of the Penitentiary. 
He now holds that position and will probably hold it 
during the present administration. He will not again 
accept it. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 299 

Plis wife having died in 1863, he was married the fol- 
lowing year to Mary J. Little, of Anson county. By his 
first wife he has five children, and by the present one 
six. 

He still takes an active part in politics, though want- 
ing no office. Occasionally he writes for the press on 
economic and sporting questions. On the latter he has 
contributed largely to the Forest and Stream and the^mer- 
ican Field. Some of these articles, his friends have the 
kindness to say, are quite readable. He is fond of hunt- 
ing, and has the best collection of breech-loading shot 
guns in the State. 

He has delivered addresses on commencement occa- 
sions at Mt. Pleasant, Greensboro, Randolph Macon and 
the University, as well as at various high schools. At 
the University, he delivered an address before the Alum- 
ni, and subsequently, on the failure of Mr. Watterson to 
appear, before the two Societies. A notice of the failure 
only reached him on Monday, and the address was deliv- 
ered on Wednesday of the same week. Whatever might 
have been the merits of the addresses, they seem to have 
met public expectation. 

He is interested to quite an extent in manufacturing, 
and is a Director in another company besides the one 
of which he is President. 



Hon. RUFUS YANCEY McADEN, 



OF CHARLOTTE. 



Was born in Caswell county March 4th, 1833. His father 
was Dr. Henry McAden, the son of Dr. John McAden, 
both eminent physicians in Caswell county. 

Dr. John McAden was the son of the Rev. Hugh Mc- 
Aden, a Presbyterian Missionary, who came from Phila- 



300 SKETCHES OF 

delphia, Pennsylvania to Norlh Carolina before the Rev- 
olutionary war, preaching throughout the State of North 
Carolina and founding the churches of Sugar creek, in 
Mecklenburg county, Haw Fields, in Alamance county, 
and Red House, in Caswell, where he located and died. 
During the Revolutionary war, he took such a prominent 
part on the Whig, or American, side that the British, 
when they passed through the county, sought out his res- 
idence and burned it, together with all his outhouses, 
and destroyed all his stock. 

The wife of Dr. John McAden was Betsey Murphey, sis- 
ter to Archibald D. Murphey, one of North Carolina's 
most distinguished citizens. The mother of R Y. Mc- 
Aden was Francis Yancey, who was the daughter of 
Bartlett Yancey and l)is wife Annie Graves. 

R. Y. McAden was left an orphan when young, and 
was reared and educated chiefly by his grandmother, 
Mrs. Bartlett Yancey, then a widow. He graduated at 
Wake Forest College in 1853, read law with Judges Nash 
and Bailey, in Hillsboro, and settled first in his native 
county of Caswell. 

In 1858, he married Mary F. Terry, daughter of Dr. B. 
F. Terry and his wife Lucy P. Terry, of Prince Edward 
county, Va. 

In the year of 1859 he moved to the county of Ala- 
mance and settled in Graham, the county seat. 

In 1860 he was the Whig candidate for the Legislature 
and was defeated by only thirteen votes, reducing the 
Democratic vote 300. He was a candidate for the State 
Convention in 1861, on what was known as "the Whig 
and Union side." He was elected b}^ an almost unani- 
mous vote. This Convention did not meet, as the people 
decided by their vote that it should not be called. He 
was elected to the Legislature in 1^62, and re-elected con- 
tinuously, and served, up to 1867. 

In 1866, he was elected Speaker of the House of Rep- 
resentatives, defeating for that high office Col. R. H. 
Cowan, of Wilmington. He discharged the duties of 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 301 

that office, in those high party times, so as to receive the 
approbation of every member of the House, his decisions 
of parliamentary questions having never been appealed 
from. 

Gov. Swain, the late President of the University of 
North Carolina, on visiting the House, said : " I have 
not seen such a Speaker since the days of Edward Stan- 
ley." 

In 1867, whilst living in Graham, he was elected Pres- 
ident of the First National Bank of Charlotte, having ex- 
perience in such matters, by reason of having been before 
and during the war, President of a bank in Graham. He 
moved to Charlotte in October, 1867, and took charge of 
the bank to which he had been elected President. He 
then retired from the practice of law and active participa- 
tion in polities. 

In 1868, he became associated with Col. A. S. Buford, 
in the construction of the Air Line Railroad from Char- 
lotte to Atlanta, Col. Buford being President and he 
Vice President. He was the originator of the present 
Spartanburg & Asheville Railroad Company, having or- 
ganized the company. It was chiefly by his energy, abil- 
ity, money and credit, that this important line of railroad 
was finally finished. 

In 1881 he turned his attention to manufacturing, 
erecting in Gaston county one of the largest and best ap- 
pointed cotton factories in the State, giving employment 
to nearly five hundred hands. 

He is at present President of the First National Bank, 
of Charlotte, President of the Spartanburg, Union and 
Columbia Railroad, the Asheville & Spartanburg Rail- 
road Company, the Falls of Neuse Manufacturing Com- 
pany and the McAden Cotton MiUs. 



302 SKETCHES OF 

JULIUS A. GRAY, Esq., 

OF GREENSBORO, 

Was born in the county of Randolph, N. C, on the 
6th of September, 1833. His father, General Alexander 
Gray, was a prominent citizen of, and represented that 
county in the Senate of North Carolina for many years 
and was in command of the North Carolina militia mus- 
tered into the United States service at Wadesboro during 
the war of 1812-'15. His mother, Sarah Harper, was a 
daughter of Jeduthun Harper, who attained to the rank 
of Colonel in the continental army during the revolu- 
tionary war, and was a near relative of Robert Goodloe 
Harper, of Baltimore. 

After a preparatory course at. the "Greensboro High 
School" and under the Rev. Jesse Rankin, at Lexington, 
the subject of this sketch entered the Sophomore class at 
Davidson College, in 1850, and graduated in 1853. In 
1855 he entered the Greensboro Branch of the Bank of 
Cape Fear as Teller and Book-keeper under that model 
gentleman and banker, Jesse H. Lindsay, to whose teach- 
ings and example Mr. Gray is more indebted than to an}'- 
thing else for whatever success he has attained. In the 
summer of 1858, Mr. Gray was elected Cashier of the 
Bank of Danville, Va., and in October of the same year 
married Miss Emma, youngest daughter of Governor 
John M. Morehead. In the Fall of 1860, he resigned his 
oflBce in Danville on account of failing health and spent 
the following winter in Florida. Returning in the 
spring of 1861, with improved health, he took charge of 
the management of Governor Morehead's cotton mills at 
Leaksville and subequently received an appointment 
under the Treasury Department of the Confederate States 
Government, which position he held until the close of 
the war. His only brother, Robert H. Gray, entered the 
military service as Captain in the 22d Regiment, of 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 303 

which J. Johnston Pettigrew was Colonel; was promoted 
to Lieutenant Colonel of this regiment and died in camp 
near Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1863. After the close 
of the war Mr. Gray's father and brother having died 
during the war, and his two brothers-in-law soon after, 
he devoted himself to settling their estates, gathering up 
the fragments and making provision for their families. 

In 1869, the Bank of Greensboro was established under 
a State charter with Jesse H. Lindsay as President and 
Mr. Gray as Cashier. In 1876 this institution was con- 
verted into the "National Bank of Greensboro," with the 
same President and Cashier. Mr. Gray continued in this 
position until 1881, when he resigned in order to devote 
his entire time and energies to the Cape Fear & Yadkin 
Valley Railway, of which he had been elected President 
in April, 1879. He had served for a short time as Direc- 
tor in the Chatham (Raleigh & Augusta) road, also in 
the Atlantic & North Carolina, and during Gov. Vance's 
last term, he was under his appointment, a Director in 
the North Carolina Railroad. So that when he was 
elected President of the Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley 
Railwa}^ he was practically without knowledge or expe- 
rience in the construction or management of such an 
enterprise. 

The place was tendered him without solicitation or 
suggestion on his part and it is very gratifying to him 
that his re election at each recurring annual meeting 
since, has been unanimous. When he entered upon the 
duties of President the road extended from Fayetteville 
to Gulf, in Chatham county, 42 miles. It had been 
involved in long and expensive litigation growing out of 
the mis-management of those into whose hands it had 
fallen during the days of Radical supremacy in North 
Carolina ; was incumbered with a heavy debt and with- 
out means for its extension or even for much needed 
repairs and equipment. The State owned 11-14 (eleven 
fourteenths) of the stock and had placed a small force of 
convicts at work grading for the proposed extension west 



304 SKETCHES OF 

of Gulf, for which she was to be paid in the first mort- 
gage bonds of the company. 

This convict force was increased from time to time 
and the grading progressed satisfactorily, but the com- 
pany was without means or credit to purchase rails and 
cross-ties. In order to reduce the cost of construction it 
had been determined to make it a narrow-guage road, a 
mortgage of $4,000 per mile was placed upon it and every 
effort made to sell the bonds both in this country and 
Europe without success. 

Mr. Gray found that there were two great obstacles 
which must be removed before any substantial progress 
could be made towards building the road. One was the 
State's control. Capitalists could not be induced to invest 
their money in an enterprise subject to political changes 
and partisan management. The other was that the 
scheme itself did not have sufficient merit in it, in the 
eyes of foreigners (people outside of North Carolina) to 
justify the expectation that it would be carried through 
successfully or be self-sustaining after completion. Mr. 
Gray went to work to remove these obstructions and suc- 
ceeded in organizing a syndicate of native North Caro- 
linians of wealth and character, most of whom lived 
along the projected line of road and had a personal 
interest in securing its completion, from the ocean to the 
mountains, as well as personal pride in the development 
of their State. He then presented his scheme to the 
General Assembly and secured such legislation as was 
necessary to enable this syndicate to purchase the State's 
interest in the road, together with a grant of convict 
labor upon such terms and conditions as would insure 
its completion. 

This Act of Assembly was passed in February, 1883, 
and from it may properly be dated the birth of this great 
North Carolina enterprise, for all previous efforts to build 
it had proved abortive and then, for the first time in its 
history, was there a well founded assurance that it would 
be successfully carried out. Since then it has been com- 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 305 

pleted to Mt. Airy in the west and to Bennettsville on 
the south, a branch built to the Deep River factories in 
Randolph and another to Madison, in Rockingham 
county. Altogether, 245 miles of road fully equipped 
and in successful operation. The extension from Fay- 
etteville to Wilmington — 80 miles, is now under contract 
to be completed next year and the surveys are being 
made for an extension west from Mt. Airy to connect 
with the great Norfolk & Western Railroad system lead- 
ing out to the great valley of the Mississippi. 

In addition to the office of President of the Cape Fear 
& Yadkin Valley Railway, Mr. Gray is Vice-President 
and General Manager of the North State Improvement 
Company, under which the Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley 
Railroad is being built, President of the National Bank 
of Greensboro, to which he was elected in January, 1887, 
upon the death of Mr. Jesse H. Lindsay, and President 
of the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce. 

He is also a stockholder and managing Director of the 
Greensboro Female College. 

He has never held or sought any political office, but is 
an ardent Democrat and tries to do his full duty in up- 
holding the principles and promoting the success of the 
party at all times. His wife is living, fair, fat and fifty; 
and rejoices in the maternity of two sons and four daugh- 
ters — two of the latter married and living near her. Mr. 
Gray owns and occupies the old homestead of the More- 
head family in Greensboro erected by Gov. Morehead 
upon his retiring from the gubernatorial chair in 1844, 
and still bearing the name bestowed upon it, " Bland- 
wood," and still maintaining to the best of his ability 
something of its ancient prestige for hospitality and 
good cheer. 



20 



306 SKETCHES OF 

HUGH M. HOUSTON, Esq., 

OF MONROE. 

Hugh McCombs Houston, son of John Houston and 
his wife Elizabeth {nee Potts) was born April 13th, 1817, 
in Mecklenburg (now Union) county, near what is now 
Stout's Station on the Carolina Central Railroad, the post 
oflSce being at that time Oakville. 

He was raised on the farm, assisting in making the 
crops in the spring and summer, and attending the old 
•field schools in the fall and winter. At the age of 20 he 
took a situation as clerk in the store of Hugh and Eli Stew- 
art, at a place on the Lawyer's road known then and now 
as Coburn's store, then the great thoroughfare between 
'Cheraw and Charlotte. At the end of two years, young 
Houston having given evidences of the high business 
qualities which have rendered his career so successful, 
his employers set him up in business at the Davis Mine 
as a partner with themselves, but having entire control. 
In the course of a few years Mr. Houston bought out his 
partners and removed the business to Fullword's Store. 
While here Union county was formed, this place falling 
on the Union side of the line. In 1840 he married Mar- 
garet, daughter of Col. Solomon Reid. 

In 1846 Mr. Houston moved to Monroe, where he has 
resided ever since. 

While at Fullword, Mr. Houston had as partner the 
late Robt. Grier, and since his removal to Monroe, has 
bad as partner at different times, E. C. Grier, David A. 
Covington and John D. Stewart. 

Soon after the formation of the new county, Mr. 
Houston was appointed Superior Court Clerk by Judge 
Manly, and after holding that oflSce for some time was 
elected County Treasurer and continued to hold that 
office for a number of years. As the war approached 
Mr. Houston being a strong Whig and Union man, was 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 307 

elected by a large majority to the Convention, which was 
not held and also to the Convention which was held and 
which passed the ordinance of secession, May 20th, 1861. 
Doing a small mercantile business during the war his 
usual sagacity induced him to put his surplus in cotton 
at interior points, a large portion of which however the 
Union soldiers destroyed by fire during the closing^ 
scenes of the struggle or rather during the lawless period 
immediately following the surrender. 

After the close of the war he resumed the mercantile 
business in copartnership with his son, R. V. Houston 
and his son-in-law, W. H. Fitzgerald, under the firm 
name of Houston & Company, and continued thus en- 
gaged till elected President of the Bank of Monroe, in 1873, 
which office he still continues to hold. He held the posi- 
tion of Director of the Wilmington, Charlotte and 
Rutherford Railroad Company, by election of the people 
of Union county, till the road was sold and was after- 
wards repeatedly elected by the new stockholders — the 
purchasers. 

Mr. Houston has traveled considerably over the South- 
ern States and just before the war owned a plantation 
and negroes in Georgia. He has been eminently suc- 
cessful in all his business enterprises and without being 
avaricious or over anxious to get rich or engaging in 
speculation or descending to the miner arts and tricks in 
trade has accumulated a handsome fortune. He has 
always been liberal and charitable, giving freely to 
schools and churches. 

Being a man of the highest integrity and of superior 
judgment in business affairs, he commands the respect of 
all who know him, while his amiability of disposition 
and kindness of heart endear him to a large circle of 
admiring friends. 



308 SKETCHES OF 

DAVID F. CALDWELL, Esq., 

OF GREENSBORO. 

David Franklin Caldwell, son of Thomas and Eliza- 
beth Caldwell, was born one mile west of Greensboro, in 
Guilford county, November 5th, 1814. His father was 
the first Clerk of the Superior Court of that county and 
was appointed by Judge Duncan Cameron, at Martins- 
ville, in 1806 or 1807, and continued to fill that oflQcefor 
more than 50 years. 

In 1808 the county seat was moved to Greensboro, and 
in laying off that town, Thos. Caldwell became the pur- 
chaser of a lot and soon afterwards erected thereon one 
of the first dwellings — certainly the first brick dwelling 
of the present city of Greensboro. Thos. Caldwell and 
family moved into this house in 1815 and the subject of 
this sketch has continued to reside therein ever since. 

Young Caldwell was sent to the village school till his 
health failed and he was then placed in a coach-shop to 
harden his muscles and toughen his lungs by familiarity 
with drawing-knives and whip saws. After spending 
some three years in this health inspiring diversion, his 
physical condition was so much improved that after a 
year spent in traveling and visiting the Virginia Springs, 
he returned to join his brothers in the mercantile busi- 
ness in which he continued for 17 years. He first took 
an active part in politics in the Log Cabin campaign of 
1840 and gave his first vote for "Tippecanoe and Tyler 
too." 

In 1846, it appeared by the message of Gov. Graham 
to the Legislature, that some $50,000 of deficiency in the 
treasury existed and to meet that a new assessment was 
recommended with a view to increased rates of taxation. 
Up to this time land was almost the only subject of taxa- 
tion, the Governor in this message recommending the 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 309 

taxing of collateral descents also. Mr. Caldwell per- 
ceiving the inequality and gross injustice of an exclusive 
land tax, immediately took a stand for taxing money, 
solvent credits, licenses and various species of personal 
property. This was such an innovation and struck so 
directly at the richer classes, that a tremendous furor 
was raised about his head. He prevailed upon a young 
lawyer to take the stump for the Legislature in favor of 
this new scheme of taxation, but the storm was so great, 
the gibes, witticisms and ridicule of the other six or 
seven candidates came so thick and heavy that the young 
man's heart failed him and he retired after the first 
encounter. Nothing daunted, the substitute having 
failed the principal marched bondly to the front. Mr. 
Caldwell took the field and at the speaking the first day 
he met his opponents, he showed such pluck, displayed 
such familiarity with the whole question of finance and 
taxation, giving such unanswerable facts and figures that 
at the close of his speech, though by far the youngest of 
the candidates, the entire audience rose to their feet and 
gave three rousing cheers for "plucky Frank Caldwell." 
He was not only elected, but lead the ticket by about two 
to one and received every vote cast in the county except 
120. In the Legislature, Mr. Caldwell not only succeeded 
in having his favorite measure passed against stubborn 
and powerful opposition but also took a leading part in 
passing acts chartering the North Carolina Railroad 
Company, relaying with T iron the Raleigh & Gaston, 
and Wilmington & Weldon Railroads, improving the 
navigation of Deep River, chartering a plank road from 
Fayetteville to Salem, and a Turn Pike from Salisbury 
via Murphy to the State line, and one from Greensboro to 
Mt. Airy. Mr. Caldwell was triumphantly returned to 
the Legislature while his two colleagues who voted 
against these important measures were defeated. Subse- 
quently he took a leading part in the memorable strug- 
gle for passing and securing the charter of the Charlotte 



310 SKETCHES OF 

& Danville road, the bill being passed in the absence of 
one deceased and one or two sick members, by the cast- 
ing votes of Calvin Graves, the Speaker. But a million 
dollars had to be raised to secure the charter, and Mr. 
Caldwell and the late Hon. John A. Gilmer, made that 
notable campaign in Guilford and adjoining counties 
which resulted in securing $850,000 of the required mil- 
lion. Governor Morehead who is generally credited with 
the success of this measure, was nevertheless incredulous 
till he saw the results of the herculean efforts of Cald- 
well and Gilmer, which first seemed to inspire him with 
hope and led him to exclaim to Lyndon Swain, then 
editor of the Patriot, "By George, I believe the boys are 
going to succeed and we must turn out and help them." 

It may be truthfully said that no one, not even Gover- 
nor Morehead, did more hard and effective work in origi- 
nating the project, securing the charter, raising the means 
and actually building the North Carolina Railroad than 
D. Frank Caldwell. 

In the Legislature of 1856-57, Mr. Caldwell having 
taken strong ground against re-chartering the old State 
Bank and the Cape Fear Bank, was made chairman of 
the Committee on Banks and Corporations, and reported 
adversely not only the bills above referred to but a num- 
ber of other bills chartering State Banks, such as those 
which the results of the war a few years later showed to 
have been weak and worthless concerns. 

Meantime, Mr. Caldwell having studied law and 
obtained license to practice, had formed a partnership 
with the late James A. Long, and the firm was doing a 
thriving business when the war broke out. Near the 
close of the war Mr. Caldwell was summoned on duty 
among the senior reserves and promptly responded 
although lacking but two months of being 50 years of 
age — the limit of liability. He was made Captain of his 
company and on the formation of a regiment was the 
general favorite for Colonel, but was defeated by a method 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 311 

and for a purpose, as he thought, which did him such 
gross injustice and so incensed his feelings and those of 
his friends that he again offered as a candidate for the 
Legislature and was triumphantly elected after a fierce 
and bitter contest. He was soon afterwards elected 
prosecuting attorney for the county and continued to 
hold that office by re-election till ousted by command of 
General D. E. Sickles, with headquarters in Charleston, 
S. C. He was elected to the Reconstruction Convention 
together with Hon. Robt. P. Dick and Jonathan Harris, 
and was subsequently nominated for Congress in opposi- 
tion to the reconstruction measures, but was opposed by 
all manner of foul and dastardly means — crowds of 
whites and negroes breaking up the meetings at which 
he was to speak by howling and shouting and threatening 
violence, at other times barring the doors of court 
houses where he was to speak, by threats to take his life 
openly and secretly, etc., and of course he was defeated. 
Next he was elected with Dr. Nereus Mendenhall to the 
State Convention which, however, failed to be called by 
the popular vote, taken at the time of the election of 
delegates. In 1879 Mr. Caldwell was elected to repre- 
sent the counties of Alamance and Guilford in the State 
Senate, in which body he was appointed on a special com- 
mittfee with Giles Mebaue and others to compromise the 
State debt, a most difficult and important task which was 
accomplished in the face of strong opposition, to the 
general satisfaction of the people of the State. In this 
Legislature Mr. Caldwell advocated other important 
works of internal improvement the success of which in 
subsequent years is further proof of his great sagacity 
and patriotism. 

Although often before the people in heated contests in 
times of peace and of war, Mr. Caldwell was never 
defeated except in the forlorn race for Congress above 
referred to. 

He was always a leader in thought and in action, bold 



312 STKECHES OF 

in speech as well as in deed ; a man of strong convictions, 
he was always positive, aggressive, never in doubt after 
his mind was once made up, as to the justice or ultimate 
success of the measures he advocated. It is regretted 
that the scope of this work does not admit of a more 
extended and detailed account of his most interesting 
career. 



SAMUEL H. WILEY, Esq., 

OF SALISBURY. 

The subject of this sketch was born in Guilford county, 
in 1827. His father was a farmer of moderate estate and 
of Scottish descent; his mother, Nancy Millis, was of 
French descent, her parents being of a family of exiled 
Huguenots of France. His father died at the age of 77, 
his mother at the age of 85. 

Mr. Wiley received his education at the classical school 
of E. W. Caruthers and at the Caldwell Institute, then 
one of the best schools in the State. Julius A. Gray and 
Governor Scales were among the students. 

Mr. Wiley taught school at intervals and thereby 
secured the means of paying for his education. He 
received a classical education and the degree of A. M. 
was conferred on him by the State University. 

He studied Engineering under Gen. J. F. Gilmer, and 
was for a. while thereafter U. S. Surveyor of public lands 
in the west. 

He was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue for 
the Western District of North Carolina, in 1865, and 
held that office until 1872. 

He has been for a long time a Director of the Western 
North Carolina and the North Carolina Railroads. He 
is Treasurer and a Trustee of Davidson College. 



PROMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 813 

In 1882, he formed a partnership with 0. D. Davis and 
established the banking house of Davis & Wiley, which 
ranks with the best banks in the State and has done a 
very successful business. Mr. O. D. Davis is Cashier, a 
man of high character and fine business talent. 

Mr. Wiley is Vice-President of the Salisbury Cotton 
Mills and a Director of the Salisbury Waterworks. He 
has been largely interested in the Cranbury Iron Works 
and is now interested in the Ore Hill Mining property of 
Chatham county and in various other enterprises. 

He has been very successful in business and is one of 
the richest men of his section. 

He was married to Miss Mariam C. Murdock, July 4th, 
1861. 

Mr. Wiley has travelled a great deal. On one occasion he 
went around the Mediterranean sea and he has travelled 
in all parts of the United States. 

His home is one of the handsomest places in Salisbury. 
His house is a large brick structure and his yard and 
gardens are beautified with flowers and schrubbery. 



Hon. JAMES MADISON LEACH, 

OF LEXINGTON. 

J. M. Leach was born at Lansdowne, the family home- 
stead, in Randolph county, one mile from Trinity Col- 
lege, (his father's land once running into Trinity.) His 
father, William Leach, Esq., was the most prominent 
man of the neighborhood, and for many years an influ- 
ential magistrate and settler of disputes in the country 
around; his mother was Nancy Leach nee Brown, the 
daughter of John Brown, a revolutionary Whig who 
fought at the battles of Camden and the Cowpens, (where 
he was wounded) and at King's Mountain — she was a 
woman of much vigor of mind. 

Mr. Leach, as well as his brothers and sisters, received 



314 SEKTCHKS OF 

a good classical and mathematical education; studied 
law with his distinguished brother, 1. E. Leach, who soon 
after died, (but not till he had attained great success) — 
settled in Lexington and had a large practice for more 
than 30 years. 

Mr. J. M. Leach was elected to the lower branch of the 
Legislature in 1848, soon after his marriage, and re-elected 
and served continuously for 10 years. 

In 1856, he was a Fillmore elector from h\f^ district. 

In 1858, he was nominated for Congress as a Whig against 
Hon. A. M. Scales, then in Congress and now Governor, and 
in a Democratic district, and was elected by a large ma- 
jority. He opposed secession and voted and spoke against 
it — having made in that Congress, the 36th, an elaborate 
speech for the Union and its perpetuity. He was a can- 
didate for re-election and was stumping the district in 
the mountains, when he heard of Lincoln's demand for 
State troops — he went home, raised a company of 101 
chosen men, was elected its Captain and when the regi- 
ment was formed was elected Lieutenant Colonel — was 
in the Bull Run and first Manassas battles. The next 
year he resigned, returned home and was elected to the 
Confederate Congress. 

In the Legislature of '65, '6Q, '67 and '68, he was a 
member of the Senate, serving on the Judiciary and 
Internal Improvement committees — was as he had been 
in the years before, a warm friend of Internal Improve- 
ments, and common schools and the State University and 
colleges. 

In 1871, he was again elected to Congress, this time 
over General VV. L. Scott, and served the term of two 
years. 

In 1873, he was re-elected to Congress after a warm 
contest with Judge Settle. 

At the expiration of his term he wrote a circular letter 
to his constituents declining further honors at their 
hands. 

In 1879-'80, he was again elected to the State Senate 



PKOMINENT LIVING NORTH CAROLINIANS. 315 

and was made Chairman of the Committee on Internal 
Improvements. He was very active in his position as 
chairman of Internal Improvements in aiding Dr. Worth, 
(Worth being the great and manly leader) in settling and 
adjusting the State debt. He was chairman of the com- 
mittee of 24, in the called session of the Legislature in 
the sale of the Western North Carolina Railroad, to Best 
and his assignees — the Richmond & Danville Road 
becoming the purchasers, which contract has been met 
and carried over by the indomitable energy of Colonel 
Andrews, a man of great administrative ability. 

In 1876, he was elector for the State at large on the 
Tilden ticket and stumped most of the counties of the 
State, and spoke in 10 counties in South Carolina in 
behalf of General (now Senator Hampton) for Governor, 
and he was President of the college again. In 1880 he 
was elector for the State at large on the Hancock ticket 
for the Presidency, and also President of the college. 

He has had a large and lucrative practice at the law 
for 35 years and is still at the bar. He lost his large 
property by the result of the war and by very large 
security, but has still a competency. He has but one 
child living, Colonel J. M. Leach, Jr., who is a lawyer by 
profession, but temporarily out of the State — a graduate 
of our University with high distinction — a man of fine 
talents. 

The subject of this sketch is perhaps as well known to 
the people of North Carolina as any other of her promi- 
nent men. As a campaign orator he ranks with the 
foremost that our State has produced. He can speak 
two or three hours without hesitating for a word, and 
keep his audience in an uproar of laughte'r with his wit 
and humor and fine mimicry. He "knows all qualities, 
with a learned spirit of human dealings" and is skilled 
in the art of converting men to his party. 

In his public career of 26 years he was never defeated 
for office and was never worsted in a public political dis- 
cussion. He is a very able legal advocate. 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 



Abernethy, R. L 207 

Adams, H. B 68 

Alexander, S. B 274 

Andrews, A. B 239 

Armfield, R. F 104 

Ashe, S. A 174 

Avery, A. C... 105 

Bain, D. W 83 

Bailey, W.H.... 137 

vBarringer, R 222 

Barnes, D. A 129 

Battle, Richai'd H 289 

Battle, K. P 205 

Bennett, R. T.. 49 

Birdsong, J. C 83 

Blackwell, W. T 250 

Bonitz, J. A 178 

Boykin, E. T 125 

Brenizer, A. G 269 

Bridgers, R. R 228 

Brown, J. L „ 268 

i^Brogden,C. H 39 

Broughton, N. B 281 

Bruner, J.J 165 

Busbee, F. H 118 

Bunn, B. H.. 79 

Burkhead, L. S 196 

Burwell , Armistead 279 

Burwell, J. B 212 

u- Buxton, R. P 126 

^^Bynum, W. P 97 

Caldwell, W. P 144 

Caldwell, David F 308 

Caldwell, J. P 177 

Carter, Melvil E 288 

Carr, J. S 231 

Clapp, J. C 203 

Clark, Walter 122 

Cobb, T. H 150 

Covington, D. A 59 

Cowles, W. H. H 44 

Cox, W. R 48 

Craige, Kerr 131 



318 INDEX. 

PAGE 

Daniels, Josephus 189 

Davidson, Theo. F 134 

Davidson, A. B 265 

*^Dick, R. P 109 

w^Dockery , O. H 56 

Dortch, W. T 120 

Drake, E. B 186 

i^Faircloth, W. T 135 

Ferree, John H 291 

Fries, H. W... 254 

Finger, S. M 213 

Fowle, D. G 35 

Gaither , B. S 40 

Gilmer, J. A 116 

Gray, Julius A 302 

Green, W. J 49 

Grissom, Eugene .* 153 

Haywood, E. B 155 

Hall, J. G 263 

Harris, J. H _ 70 

Howard, Geo 130 

Henderson, J. S 43 

-Hill, T. N 138 

Hobgood, F. P 214 

Holt, T. M. 253 

Holmes, M. L 258 

Hoke. J. F 142 

Houston , Hugh M 306 

Jarvis, T. J 21 

Johnston, T. D 50 

w<Johnston, Wm 245 

Jones, Hamilton C 284 

Kenan, T. S 140 

Kingsbury, T. B 171 

Latham, L. C 53 

Leach, James M 313 

Leazar, A 57 

Long, B. F. 151 

Lyman, T. B 190 

Malone, W. H 147 

Manning. John 138 

McAden, Rufus Y 299 



319 

INDEX. 

PAGE. 
__ 54 

^^cCorkle, M. L _ fj^ 

McKinnon,L ^^^ 

.. 88 

.... 191 



MacRae, J. C. 

Merritt, A. tL----" 
Merrimon, A. b --- 



ivieri iLuwx, -^^. - ^. 

Miller, A. W--- -— ; ij| 

Montgomery, W. J i*^ 

Moreliead, J. i ^^^ 



61 



Mott, J. J--- 

J^ui-phy' P- ^ 145 

Nash,H. K - - :::::/J^^--'" ^^ 

Kichols, John ^^^ 

Gates, Robert M v.:"^::-y^"-"- ^f^ 

Odell,JohnM 55 

O'Hara, J. E --- 63 

Overman, L. c> ^^ 

u^earson, Richmond :;'.'.:'.--"--------- -,07 

Pemberton, S. J.- --- ^^* 

Peschau, F. W. E. 187 

Polk, L. L 

Price, J. C 

Price, Chas..--- • 
Pritchard, T. H... 



187 
210 
140 
201 

5 
216 



Ransom, M.W. _.. 

Ransom, Robert _ «- 

l^-^Reade, E. G - -" ^' 



64 
32 



Reid, D. S 

Robins, M. S--'"" "' IQ0 

Robbins, W M 193 

Robey,W.M. ■; 80 

Roberts, W.P 6d 

Rose, G.M. --- — - - II 

Rowland, Alfred 194 

Rumple, Jethro y_-/_ 1^^ 

Russell, D. L ^^^ 

sanderiin, G w :::::::::''--"--------'- tl 

Saunders, Wm. L -^ 

Scales. A.M..-- -//_ 100 

Schenck. David 108 

shipp, w. M :::::::::::: g 

Simmons, F. M -^J 

Skinner, T.G - 86 

Smith, W.N.H.. 



86 



^^^ INDEX. 



o •., ^ PAGE. 

Smith, J. H. . 

Steele, Walter L 199 

Stedman, Chas. M. 296 

-_-.* .,_.. 33 

Tate, S. McD. . 

Tucker, R. S. 260 

255 

Vance, R. B. . 

Vance, Z. B. 225 

7 

Waddell, A. M. 

Warren, C. F.. 27 

Warinff, R. p. 69 

Webb, J. L. 73 

Webster, J. R.. 66 

Wiley, Samuel H 62 

Wittkowskv, Samuel ^^2 

WilKams, W. H. 235 

Wilson, T. J.... - 272 

Worthington, D. .""/"."."."l.""' ^^^ 

Yates, W, J. . 

169 



LBJa'26 K 



